


Spliced Wires

by ClockworkDinosaur (orphan_account)



Category: BioShock, Steam Powered Giraffe
Genre: Crossover, Drama, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-04
Updated: 2016-01-28
Packaged: 2018-04-30 00:51:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 25,209
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5144261
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/ClockworkDinosaur
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mark Ray Walter is invited to the mysterious and secret underwater city of Rapture, but once he's in, there's no going back. Luckily, he managed to smuggle in certain automatons...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Welcome to Rapture

I have nothing left to lose, he told himself as he stood on the pier with several suitcases, boxes, and crates stacked up behind him. The crates whirred and ticked on occasion, a low hum nearly unheard over the slapping of the waves against the pillars holding the docks above the water.

Mark A. Walter stood alone on the empty waterfront, his hat pulled low over his face as he waited. He wasn’t familiar with this side of the country- he was told the only place he could be picked up was on the East coast, and he’d spent the entirety of his 22-year long life in California; the unfamiliarity of the setting made him uneasy.

He hadn’t planned on going. He’d received the letter from Ryan Industries while his wife was seven months pregnant. He’d tossed it aside, not interested in the proposed “business deal” between Walter Robotics and Ryan Industries. He wasn’t going to make her travel while her body was already under such stress anyway- Judith was fragile to begin with, and the baby was only making her more weak as the pregnancy went on. When she went into labor two months early, Mark had to watch as the doctors could do nothing to stop her from bleeding out. He wanted nothing to do with the child.

Once she was gone, he’d called Andrew Ryan, and was gone within two weeks.

Leaving was a lot easier than he thought it would be once he’d lost the one he truly cared about.

As much as it hurt, he hoped -knew, really- he’d never go back. He couldn’t imagine facing his family again- not after running away with no warning like this. He didn’t want to be in that manor anymore, where he still heard the echoes of sobs as his wife bled to death. He didn’t want to face the son he’d left behind.

He didn’t want to be questioned about the things he’d brought with him, asleep in the crates piled behind him, disguised as nothing more than luggage.

A relatively small ship approached quickly, seemingly conjured from the shadows on the horizon, no lights signaling its presence. Mark watched it warily as it stopped and several large men walked up to him, their bulky coats barely concealing the weapons strapped on their bodies.

“You’re Mark Walter? The engineer?” one man asked with a glance at the lanky, nervous looking man. Mark nodded, and the two men signaled the ship, bringing out several more men with trolleys to move the heavy crates. Mark picked up his suitcases, warned the others that the crates were heavy and incredibly fragile, and stepped aboard the black ship without a backwards glance at the land behind him that he knew he’d never be returning to.

* * *

 

 

Mark wasn’t sure what to expect of the city of Rapture. He had no frame of reference to compare- how does one envision the impossible? But once the introductory slideshow narrated by the founder of the city, Andrew Ryan, ended and the screen lifted, Mark realized that nothing could compare to the glowing city.

The city of Rapture glittered like huge crystals growing from the sea bottom, silver and teal spires reaching for a sky that was miles overhead with graceful lines. Mark couldn’t help but press his hands against the glass of the spherical bathysphere and stare as it weaved between buildings, bright in the gloom of the depths of the Atlantic ocean. The deep, calming voice of Andrew Ryan spoke about freedom from tyranny, but Mark barely heard him as the city surrounded him.

The self-propelled mini-submarine glided past buildings, making its way through several arches and into one of the tallest buildings. It rose past advertisements and artwork, eventually stopping above water and opening its doors. A small walkway extended from the bathysphere and Mark carefully exited, mouth slightly agape as he took in the grand welcoming building. The ocean was kept at bay by only a few inches of reinforced glass, sunlight almost filtering its way down to the city, casting wavering shadows over the buildings just outside the window. Mark grabbed his suitcases before the bathysphere sunk down below the water.

“Welcome to Rapture.” a young woman said with a smile, handing him a city map as he walked through the welcome center, slightly dazed by the opulence of the city. If it weren’t for the fish swimming outside the windows, he could have convinced himself he was at the most expensive hotel on land. People in a similar state of awe walked by him, clutching bags and suitcases as they made their way deeper into the city. Above the hushed voices and the soft sound of water rising and falling as bathyspheres dropped off citizens, Andrew Ryan’s authoritative voice welcomed them to the city under the sea.

* * *

Mark made his way to his living quarters, paid for in full a few days before he’d left what he once called home. The money came from the Walter’s dwindling fortune, but Mark almost didn’t care. He was determined to forget the life he’d left behind.

He entered his new home and saw the fragile crates splintered open and cracked in the middle of the foyer. He dropped his suitcases, rushing to the empty crates in terror, wondering how someone had managed to get inside the locked and secure home, until he realized.

The crates were broken from the inside, splinters and shards of wood surrounding the floor around them.

He visibly relaxed as she shook his head, giving a relieved chuckle as he stood.

“Boys, where are you? How’d you even power yourselves on?” he called into the empty apartment. Heavy, metallic footsteps responded, and a gold figure ran from the living room, the short automaton nearly vibrating in excitement.

“Mark! Where are we? How’d we get here? Oh, oh, Mark! I saw a whale outside and Spine saw it too so I know it was real and I’m awake, but how? Whales live in the ocean but we’re obviously in a building and there are no buildings in the ocean, but-” The excited gold robot bounced as he spoke, gesturing wildly as Mark smiled.

“The Jon, we are in the ocean. Get Rabbit and The Spine, I have some things I need to tell you all…”

* * *

“Rapture… A city under water,” the tall silver automaton said in awe as the three robots stood at the window, staring out into the city. “If I wasn’t looking at it, I wouldn’t believe it.” he shook his head.

“It’s amazing, isn’t it? The best and brightest minds of the world, all in one place, free of government interference and free to pursue any interest without censor.” Mark said.

“I c-c-can’t believe we were invi-vi-vited…” the shorter copper robot said with a wide grin, blue and green photoreceptors darting around, taking in everything the city had to offer. Mark only smiled.

“If you boys don’t mind, I need to unpack the rest of the things I’ve brought. This apartment has five bedrooms, you can all pick out your o-”

“I w-w-want the biggest one!” Rabbit yelled, cutting off Mark and running down the hall.

“Rabbit no, I’m-” he sighed. “Spine, could you tell him that the largest room is going to be used as my lab?” Mark shook his head and turned, heading back to the rest of the crates in the foyer to organize things.

The crates were mostly filled with papers and tools, things that he used often. Anything else he needed, he planned to buy. Admittedly, he hadn’t done a very good job packing. The blueprints, plans, and other miscellaneous papers were shoved haphazardly a box, stained with oil and faintly glowing Blue Matter. That’s probably unsafe, he thought to himself nonchalantly as he carried the box into the lab, just as The Spine pulled Rabbit out.

“This is so un-unfair…” Rabbit grumbled, trying in vain to pull away from The Spine’s grip. Mark shrugged awkwardly, the box of papers about to slip from his grasp.

“I gotta put my laboratory things somewhere, Rabbit. Sorry. That’s why we’re here in the first place, for me to build robots.”

“Yeah but… st-st-still.” Rabbit continued to grumble, still being pulled down the hall by The Spine.

Mark shook his head, just as he lost his grip, papers exploding from the box and scattering down the hallway as he swore. He groaned, scooping up as many as he could and piling them in a disorganized heap. He tossed it into a corner of the laboratory, a few papers fluttering out as the box landed with a thud. He made a few more trips back and forth, eventually sorting all of the boxes and crates into their respective rooms.

The apartment had come partially furnished, bare beds in each room and a sparse kitchen and dining room set up. Mark sat at the dining table for a moment, reality setting in as he stared out of the window at a passing school of fish. He was in Rapture now- and he couldn’t leave. He didn’t let himself think of those he’d left behind and would never see again, that the bots would never see again either. He let out a long breath, pushing his unruly brown hair back as he continued to stare, the room silent as he contemplated his new life.


	2. Fort Frolic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Steam-Man Band needs to impress the mad artist Sander Cohen, but their first show doesn't go quite as planned.

Many months passed as the city took in thousands of new citizens from all over the world. Artists, scientists, and business people from hundreds of countries filled the city with technological advancements far beyond what the world topside had ever seen, along with entertainment that was no longer dictated by surface morals. Rapture’s hub of entertainment, ranging from high-class operas to seedy strip clubs, was Fort Frolic; a glittering jewel of depravity and vice lit up in neon and stage-lights. Men and women crowded the walkways, laughing and searching for their chance to make it forward in the city or to forget their failure, one way or another.

It was there Mark and the three robots made their way with a purpose, fighting their way through the meandering crowd. The Jon gaped at the bright advertisements, stopping in front of store-front windows often to stare, then being pulled away by The Spine. Rabbit kept pace with Mark, head down. 

“There’s a lotta p-p-people here, huh?” the copper automaton remarked, nearly bumping into a group of young women laden with shopping bags.

“Of course, Rabbit. This is where the big cats hang out. The artists and actresses who want to get noticed by Cohen too.” he grinned at the tall robot. “Something tells me that we’ve got the upper hand on them, though. Who else has a group of singing automatons?” 

Rabbit shrugged noncommittally as the odd group made their way into Fleet Hall, the opulent theater more hushed than the main hall of Fort Frolic, quiet music playing just above the buzz of chatter in the lobby as people waited for the show to begin. The robots stood in an empty corner as Mark chatted with a body guard. The guard sized up the man and his three automatons before nodding, leading them into a private dressing room.

Sander Cohen lounged on a fainting couch, face done up in stage makeup and wearing a tuxedo costume. He looked over the inventor and his robots with an air of thinly veiled boredom, before waving his hand flippantly in greeting.

“Mister Cohen, it’s an honor to meet you.” Mark said with a smile and a respectful nod.

“And you are Mark Walter, I presume. I’ve been expecting you- but you are late.” he scolded as he stood, before smiling a bit. “However, one can be forgiven for being fashionably late, especially when one makes an appearance amongst the most forward men in our glittering city.” he gestured to himself.

Rabbit couldn’t quite shake the feeling that the man was putting on a performance- his words were too polished and dictated for any normal conversation. Something about the actor set Rabbit on-edge. She glanced at The Spine, who looked even more stiff and formal than usual. Even The Jon, who took to strangers like an excited puppy, kept his distance from the artist.

Mark, however, had no such reservations as he shook hands with Cohen, introducing the Steam-Man Band. The three robots got into position, letting their performance protocols take over.

“G-g-good evening, we are the Steam-Man Band, here to en-en-entertain you this fine evening.” Rabbit said with a bow and a tip of her hat. Cohen watched, eyebrows arched, as the robots ran through their pre-programmed introductions.

“Hello there, my name is The Spine and I was built with a titanium-alloy spine!” he said, turning to show the smokestacks barely protruding from his back. The Jon replied with his programmed responses that usually sent the crowds into uproarious laughter.

Cohen simply looked bored.

Mark swallowed a bit nervously, gauging the actor’s cool reaction to the robots.

“And m-my name is Rabbit!” Rabbit sad last, bowing again. “I was b-built back in-”

“ Stop!” Cohen interrupted suddenly, to the complete surprise of the robots and Mark. “Your name is  _ Rabbit _ , you say?” the artist asked the copper automaton after a full minute of stunned silence. She nodded dumbly, too confused and nervous to say anything.

Cohen looked the whole band up and down, a slow grin spreading across his face as he stroked his chin.

“ I’ll give you a…  _ proposition _ of sorts, my dear Mister Walter. I will give you a contract. Your automatons will have one week of performances here at Fleet Hall. If they should turn in a decent amount of patrons, we’ll see about extending that. I’ll admit though, Rapture’s citizens can be… finicky. They demand the best here in Fort Frolic, and I intend to give them just that. Impress the audience, and you impress me. Disappoint… And I’ll make sure that these dear automatons are re-purposed into something more useful.” he said, smiling benignly.

Mark stiffened at Cohen’s threat. “I-I’m…” he trailed off, weighing his options. 

After a moment, he nodded.

“You have a deal, Mister Cohen.”

The two men shook hands as the automatons looked at each other, worry evident in their glowing photo-receptors.

  
  


“M-M-Mark, why’d you take the deal? If we don’t pull in a b-b-bunch of people we’re done for…” Rabbit said once they were back home a few hours later. She paced the living room, glaring at Mark every few steps. The Spine sat stiffly on the chair nearby, watching Rabbit pace. 

“I agree Mark, this might have been a mistake…” The Spine admitted.

“Have faith in yourself, boys! You’re talented and different enough to pull in a crowd, even with the minimal advertising Cohen promised.” Mark said, bitterness tinging the end of his sentence. 

“Yeah, guys! We’ll do great!” The Jon said, enthusiastically nodding in agreement.

“What if we don’t?” Rabbit muttered.

“We can’t afford to think that way.” Mark said with a shrug. “Confidence is key. And you have two weeks to prepare, so you’re not going to go in cold. You can pull this off.”

Rabbit’s chest heaved in an artificial sigh, before she shook her head and stomped from the room. The Jon looked at the others tensely before following, leaving the others in silence.

Rabbit was pacing again, this time in her room, fists clenched angrily as the steam poured off of her. The Jon stood in the doorway for a moment, waiting to be noticed, not wanting to interrupt. She saw him as she turned, stopping in her tracks as The Jon waved awkwardly. 

“You okay, Rabbs?” he asked softly.

“ I… No, n-n-not really. I’m scared. If w-w-we don’t do good enough to turn in a high profit, then we _ belong _ to Cohen. And the thought’a that’s  _ terrifying _ . The man sc-sc-scares me.” she sighed, running her hand over her copper face. 

“This is no different than a show back home, Rabbit. We can do this. Mark wouldn’t have signed the contract if-”

“Mark doesn’t actually g-g-give a damn about is, Th’Jon! H-haven’t you noticed? The on-only reason we’re here’s be-be-because he needs a way to make money while he tinkers away on use-use-useless things!” Rabbit snapped, glaring out of the porthole window.

“How do you know that?” The Jon asked, blue photo-receptors wide.

“ I snooped through his desk a f-few weeks ago. We weren’t invi-vi-vited, just Mark.  _ Just _ Mark.” she emphasized. “He w-wasn’t supposed to br-bring anyone else along.”

“That doesn’t mean he doesn’t care though… He cared enough to bring us along.”

“He cares en-enough about himself to make sure he had a way to make money while he l-l-locks himself away.” Rabbit retorted. “That’s why he was okay with signin’ us off to C-C-Cohen. If we f-fail, he doesn’t n-need us anymore.”

The Jon blinked a few times, processing the information. “But maybe… Maybe he’s just confident in our skills. He brought us into Rapture to give us a chance, I think. And maybe because he didn’t want to be alone”

Rabbit stared at him for a moment before sighing, a smile softening her face as she looked at the younger robot.

“M-maybe you’re right, Th’Jon.” she conceded.

  
  


The two weeks passed in a flurry of practicing and musical tune-ups for the Steam-Man Band’s first night of performance at Fleet Hall. The Spine attempted to keep the nervous Rabbit and the over-excited The Jon on a schedule, with limited success. Sander Cohen sent Mark the bot’s stage costumes; simple black three-piece suits with ties that corresponded with each automaton’s eye color.

“N-n-not goin’ for glamor, I see.” Rabbit muttered, running her fingers over the blue-and-green tie.

“Simple is best. We’ll blow the crowd away with our talent!” The Jon said encouragingly.

“The Jon is right, we don’t need to look any particular way, the music is what’s drawing in the audience. That, along with the fact we’re fifty-two year old sentient clockwork automatons that sing. That’ll be intriguing enough to people for them to watch.” The Spine shrugged.

“ Yeah, but I expected  _ more _ from S-S-Sander Cohen. More…  _ glitz _ I guess.” Rabbit rolled her eyes.

“ Well, I’ll let  _ you _ complain to Cohen then, Rabbit.” Mark said as he walked into the room the robots had taken over as their practice room. “You fellas ready for tonight?”

They nodded with varying degrees of enthusiasm, The Jon’s top hat nearly sliding off of his bright curly hair as he nodded vigorously.

“Our first show in Rapture! We’re performing in a city underwater, guys!” he continued to chatter excitedly as the robots donned their stage outfits and packed their instruments, nervous energy buzzing in the air as the group made their way to Fort Frolic.

  
  


“ This is d-d- _ dismal _ .” Rabbit said bluntly as she peeked through the curtain. She let the heavy curtain drop as she turned to her brothers, looking vaguely terrified. 

“The first three rows are barely f-f-filled. That’s it, we’re d-d-done for.” she said, running her hand over her head.

“Maybe people are just late, we still have another fifteen minutes before the show starts!” The Jon said, but even the usually optimistic robot looked doubtful. 

“It doesn’t matter, we have all week to pull in a profit, perhaps more people will show up tomorrow.” The Spine said as he tuned his guitar. “We just need to put on a good show.”

“And that you will, good sirs!” Cohen said, as he came from a dressing room carrying a paper bag. He smiled serenely at each robot in turn before walking up to Rabbit, a few inches too close for comfort.

“And you, my dearest Rabbit… I have something to add to your costume.” Cohen said as he opened the bag, handing the robot an intricate black and gold mask with long rabbit ears.

“Ahh, Cohen… sir, I’m n-n-not sure I can perform with a m-mask on…” she said nervously, eyes darting to her brothers for help.

“ I  _ insist. _ ”  Cohen said, tone friendly but eyes wild and dangerous. 

Rabbit suddenly came to the conclusion that the artist may be slightly mad, and arguing with him may not be in anyone’s best interests. Reluctantly, Rabbit put the mask on, adjusting it as well as she could over her metal skin so it wouldn’t slip off. She smiled awkwardly at the actor, before he nodded and turned to face the curtains. 

“It’s almost time for your introduction, remember: do not disappoint.” he warned. He took a deep breath before affixing a wide smile to his face and stepping through the curtain.

_ Disappoint who? _ Rabbit thought to herself, before her performance protocols took over.

  
  


“G-g-good evening, ladies and gents! We are the St-Steam Man Band, programmed to entertain you this lovely evening here in Fleet Hall.” Rabbit said with a flourishing bow to the crowd.

“We were built back in the 1890’s to entertain and delight audiences from all over the United States-” The Spine started, before being cut off.

“\- But now we’re here in Rapture to entertain you all!” The Jon grinned, tipping his top hat.

The robots went through the rest of their pre-programmed introductions, the audience laughing, seemingly entranced by the automatons’ stage banter.

The first few songs went on without a hitch. It was the fourth song in when Rabbit felt a strange twinge, a spark in the back of her mind that scared her, for reasons she couldn’t quite understand. All at once the stage lights were too bright, and the crowd and the instruments overwhelmingly loud. She began stuttering, as memories flooded her mind unbidden. She was able to glance desperately at the other robots, seemingly in a similar state of distress, before her memories overtook her mind, and she was back on the battlefield again.

  
  


_ The metal elephants seem to scream as they run over the sands at the robots. Copper litters the sand. Oil leaks from The Spine’s chest as his Tesla coil fires again, blasting a hole in the copper elephant’s side that bleeds red and green. _

“ _Too many! There are too many!” The Jon screams, dodging a copper tusk that barely misses impaling his head. “We can’t fight them all off!”_

“ _We’re surrounded!” another robot cries out. Who is he? Why can’t she remember? That’s not important, is it? Thoughts crowd her mind as the elephants draw closer. Rabbit looks at the other automatons desperately._

“ _Th-th-there’s only one-one-one way to end this!” She shouts over the sound of the approaching metal hoard. Wordlessly, the automatons nod in agreement._

“ _Self destruct sequence activated!”_

  
  


“Core explosion imminent!” The Spine’s voice boomed over the crowd, the other two automatons shuttering occasionally as steam poured off of them in billowing clouds. He began counting down, a low whine coming from his core like a warning.

The audience watched, confusion keeping them riveted to their seats as Mark ran on stage, cursing under his breath as he manually rebooted each robot. 

The automatons were silent for a minute, clockwork ticking as they each came back online, one after the other. The Jon looked at Mark in confusion.

“Mark, I didn’t know you’d be part of the show, too!” he commented, as the other two bots blinked and tried to remember how or when he’d joined them on stage.

The audience began cheering wildly.

  
  


“That was quite the performance you put on, I will admit! Thrilling and dangerous, but also quaint, in a way. What an outstanding opening show.” Sander Cohen congratulated the band after the show. Mark smiled uneasily as the robots looked at each other in confusion.

“ I wouldn’t say the show was  _ dangerous _ …”  The Spine said, eyebrows pulled together.

“ Well, that breakdown was  _ quite _ the convincing act then.” Cohen smiled. “Now go home, recharge your batteries and whatnot. I’m expecting a high turnout for tomorrow’s show, my lads, and I need you all ready to thrill!” Cohen waved his hand dismissively as he headed to his dressing room.

Rabbit looked at Mark with wide eyes, mouth slightly agape. “B-b-breakdown?”

“Nothing any of you need to worry about. There was radio interference during the show, but nothing came of it. There’s no reason to worry, I promise.” Mark assured.

She stared at Mark suspiciously, before turning with a shake of her head to pack away the instruments.

  
  


“Well I’ll be…” The Jon muttered the next night as he peeked through the curtain at the growing audience. Rabbit toyed nervously with her mask as the seconds to showtime counted down, while The Spine looked at the golden robot with raised eyebrows.

“Spine, Rabbit, we’ve got nearly a full house out there!” The Jon exclaimed with a wide grin. 

“You’re kid-kidding!” Rabbit said with a half-grin, nervous excitement flooding her core as she peeked through the curtains for herself. “I think we nearly s-s-sold out the show, Spine, come look!”

“ Not  ‘ _ nearly’ _ my dear Rabbit, you  _ have _ sold out the show!” Cohen said as he prepared himself to introduce the band. “I expect the same level of entertainment as last night, to wow the crowd and leave them wanting more!” he said encouragingly, before stepping through the curtains.

When Rabbit felt the spark of desperate dread in the back of her mind mid-performance and felt suddenly that everything was  _ wrong _ , she couldn’t say she was surprised.

 


	3. Blueprints

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mark finds Rabbit's original blueprints.

“ We’ve b-b-been here nearly th- _ three years _ and ya haven’t even g-g-gone through these boxes yet?” Rabbit asked skeptically as she watched Mark sort through boxes of paperwork.

“ In my defense, I completely forgot about these ones.” Mark shrugged. “I’m not sure there’s anything important here, anyway.” He looks up at Rabbit with a grin. “You wouldn’t want to help me go-”

“ I think I just heard Th’Jon break som-som-something, I b-b-better go check.” Rabbit said suddenly, a sly grin on her face as she left the room. Mark shook his head with a smirk. Sometimes it seemed Rabbit didn’t particularly like him, but there had been less strained interactions within the past few months.

He continued to go through the papers, sorting them into piles based on what he’d keep and what he’d throw away, though he doubted he’d end up throwing anything away any time soon.

He was nearly at the bottom of the box when he found a yellowed and folded up piece of paper, far older than anything he’d meant to bring with him. Curiously, he unfolded it, careful not to tear the fragile paper.

The writing was nearly indecipherable; tiny slanted almost-cursive that was smudged with oil and age, layered on top of diagrams and pictures that didn’t seem to go in any particular order. To anyone else, it would look like nothing more than scribbles and doodles. Mark, however, had no problems reading it. The Walter family had the same disorganized thought process when it came to planning, and what he was holding was definitely scribbled by a Walter. It took him several moments to figure out that he was holding blueprints written by Peter Walter I, the first engineer of the family and the original inventor of the Steam-Man Band. Mark studied the blueprints for several minutes before his eyes widened in surprise.

“ Well I’ll be  _ damned… _ ”

  
  


The Jon sat in front of the full-wall window, the lights of the city reflecting off of his gold face as he grinned at the passing sea life. Rabbit sat next to him and watched the city with him.

“ Hey Rabbs, I saw a mermaid.” The Jon said excitedly after a minute of silence.

“ Really? Where?” she replied, looking closer into the depths.

“ Out there.”

“ I m-m-meant  _ where _ out there, Jon.” she deadpanned.

He pointed to a space between two buildings where a neon advertisement featuring a mermaid glowed. Rabbit shoved him with a grin, laughing as The Jon stuck out his tongue.

“ You fell for it!” he teased.

“ I oughta throw you ou-ou-out there.” she replied jokingly.

The two were comfortably silent for several minutes before Rabbit spoke quietly.

“ D-d-do ya miss home, The’Jon?” She didn’t look at him as she asked, slightly afraid to see how he would react. Everyone had avoided talking about the surface life they’d left behind, they all knew there was no going back.

But  _ god _ , did she miss it. She missed the sun, and the way trees moved in the breeze, and mountains, and lakes. She missed animals. She missed visiting the graves of those who died, she missed those who were still alive in the Manor and probably had no idea where Mark and the automatons were.

She missed the sky most of all. She longed for stars and clouds and rain.

She could never express these thoughts, she knew. There was no going home for them. The thought made her claustrophobic, like she could feel every gallon of water surrounding them, barely held back by the reinforced alloys that made up the city.

The Jon thought for a moment. He did miss home a bit, sure. He liked watching the stars and moon every night before powering off. But Rapture was new and exciting, even after three years. He could watch squids and whales from the living room. He only shrugged.

“ To me, home is wherever we’re all at.” he said simply. Rabbit nodded.

“ I ag-g-gree, then.”

  
  


Mark wasn’t sure how to approach Rabbit. After a few days, he decided being direct would be the best course of action.

“ Rabbit, could I talk to you in the lab?” he asked, walking into the living room where the automatons were sprawled out lazily, listening to the radio. The copper robot looked up with eyebrows raised.

“ Mark, we’re br-br-brainstormin’ right now.” Rabbit said as she stood from the floor.

“ I can see that…” Mark said, glancing at The Jon who’s entire face was pressed against the window, and The Spine who was reading a newspaper.

“ This is our creative process.” The Spine said, turning a page.

“ Right.” Mark said. Rabbit followed Mark to the lab, slightly confused. In a vague sort of way, she wondered if she was in trouble for something, despite not doing anything wrong recently. 

Mark took a deep breath as he let the door close.

“ Rabbit, did you know that you’re a female robot?”

Rabbit’s jaw dropped a bit as she stared at Mark silently. A moment later, she laughed once, then shook her head, unable to stop the laughter once it started. Mark stared at her, worried.

“ Did I say something wr-”

“ Mark, I coulda tol-tol-told ya that.” she laughed once more, bitterly. “After P-Pappy died, everyone seemed to forget that my ch-ch-chassis wasn’t finished. And everyone for-for-forgot who I was supposed to be.”

“ Why didn’t you tell anyone?” Mark asked.

“ How do ya bring that up in a con-con-conversation? It’s hard to correct everyone-one-one when they think you’re just one of the fellas that’s part of the Steam-Man Band. People wou-wouldn’t understand. I’ve been one’a the guys for so l-l-long...” Her voice had taken on a desperate tone, like she’d been waiting to let these thoughts out for years. “It would have been too hard to ex-explain.” she sighed, steam swirling from her lips. “But how did you kn-know? Only Pappy knew that I’m not finished…”

“ I found your original blueprints in one of the boxes.” Mark said, handing her the yellowed piece of paper. She took it carefully, copper fingers gentile on the aged paper as she unfolded it. “I think I can upgrade you, the way Peter meant for you to be.”

Rabbit stared at her own blueprints with wide eyes.

“ Admittedly, I don’t have the same level of skill as he did, but I can-”

“ Do it. I d-d-don’t care about your skill level, just do it. Please.” she insisted. Mark nodded. 

“ I’ll need a few days to get all the supplies I need, if you’d like you can draw out any changes you want and I’ll be sure to accommodate.”

Rabbit nodded, unable to form words.

  
  


“ If I had known it had bothered you so much…” The Spine sighed, shaking his head. “I’m so sorry, Rabbit. We shouldn’t have fallen into the habit of calling you our brother.”

“ Sorry, Rabbs.” The Jon added sheepishly.

“ D-d-don’t apologize, ya knuckleheads, I’m celebrating!” Rabbit bounced excitedly. “I’m gonna get up-up-upgraded, then all will be swell!” she grinned widely. The other bots smiled back, Rabbit’s enthusiasm and joy contagious.

“ But, you know… We can’t be the Steam- _ Man _ Band anymore.” The Spine mused. “We’re going to need to change the name.”

“ We have lotsa ti-ti-time to think about that, our next performance isn’t for another m-m-month anyway.” she waved her hand flippantly.

“ Okay but… What about Steam Powered Giraffe?” The Jon said with a wide grin.

“ The “steam powered” part I understand… but the “giraffe” bit?” The Spine tilted his head.

“‘ Cause of the giraffe Dad built, Delilah. And plus giraffes are neat.” The Jon shrugged.

“ I like it.” Rabbit said with a nod.

“ We’re Steam Powered Giraffe then.” The Spine agreed. “I’ll get Mark to tell Cohen to change the posters around Fort Frolic and such.”

The other bots agreed; nobody wanted to speak to Cohen directly. Though nobody could exactly pinpoint why, he gave off vibes that made all of them uncomfortable. Mark almost always ended up speaking on the automatons’ behalf.

Rabbit stood, feeling lighter than she had in years. “I’m gonna see ab-ab-about getting new clothes and such.” She waved as she walked excitedly to her room.

“ I don’t think I’ve seen Rabbit this animated in… I don’t even know how long.” The Spine shook his head. “I can’t believe we just forgot what she was supposed to be like.”

“ The wars… They took over a lot of our lives, Spine.” The Jon said softly. “I think maybe some memories got… pushed aside, in a way.” he shook his head. “Not much of an excuse, but…” he shrugged. “But I don’t think she wants us to beat ourselves up over it. She’s celebrating, so we should too!”

“ You’re right.” The Spine sighed. “I guess I just wish she’d reminded us sooner, I suppose. Not that I blame her or anything of course. I’m… probably saying something incorrect.” he grimaced. 

“ To me, it seems that nothing’s changing much. Rabbs is still Rabbs. She’s still gonna sing and play the accordion and melodica and stuff. So don’t over think stuff, okay?” The Jon said as he stood. “I’m gonna tell Mark to tell Cohen to change the posters. Also to get Rabbit a new stage outfit.” He left The Spine alone in the living room to think.

  
  


“ Are you ready, Rabbit?” Mark asked, the tools and parts laid out around the lab as Rabbit sat on a worktable, fingers tapping with nervous excitement. She nodded vigorously, too excited to speak.

“ You’ll be fine Rabbit. It’s really no more than any repair.” The Spine assured.

“ Yeah, and when you boot back up, you’ll be upgraded and ready to go!” The Jon added, as The Spine pulled him from the room. “See ya soon, Rabbs! You’re gonna be so pretty!” he managed to shout before the door slid closed.

“ Alright, Rabbit. I need you to shut down compl-”

“ This w-w-will work right? When I wake up, my body will be what it’s s-supposed it be?” she asked, eyes wide and afraid. She was terrified that she would wake up to see that he had failed, that her chest was still flat and her hips narrow and everything not what it was meant to be, how she was supposed to be built.

She wasn’t sure she’d want to wake up in that situation, having the excitement of finally being upgraded after  _ decades  _ crushed.

“ I’m going to do everything I can.” Mark assured. “I’m not a  _ complete _ imbecile when it comes to engineering, trust me. This will go fine.” he grinned.

Rabbit nodded hesitantly, before letting out a shaky sigh of steam. “Here g-g-goes…” she laid on the work table and her photo-receptors slipped closed, her clockwork slowing to a stop.

  
  


It took two days for Mark to finish Rabbit’s upgrade. Two days of sleepless work rewiring her limbs, exchanging plaiting, and refitting gears into her new, feminine copper chassis. He checked and double checked each connection, barely blinking for hours as he made sure each delicate wire was connected to the correct place and each gear was perfectly aligned.

The Spine and The Jon did their best to make sure Mark was eating and drinking, but once he’d started he was nearly impossible to talk to.

It was dawn when he took a step back, heaving a sigh as he ran his grease-stained fingers through his hair.

He was done. He held his breath as he manually turned on Rabbit, taking a step back as her gears began whirring and her boiler heated up.

She started by moving her hands, bringing them up to her face and moving her fingers, brushing them lightly over her copper skin. Suddenly she bolted into a sitting position, looking down at herself with wide eyes.

“ This is… me.” she breathed, her voice barely audible.

“ Did I get everything right?” Mark fretted. “I tried to stick to Peter the first’s blueprints as much as possible, and your modifications, of c-”

“ Yes, Mark! Mark you… you d-d-did it, I’m…” she couldn’t express how she felt, words not enough to explain.

“ Do you want me to bring in the others?” Mark grinned widely, Rabbit’s joy radiating off of her.

“ N-n-not yet!” she said, the sound of her voice making her grin wider. “I gotta, um… I’m n-n-not wearing clothes.”

“ Oh, of course.” he shook his head, blinking a few times, exhaustion hitting him hard all at once. “I’ll, uh… Yeah. I’ll just let you see them, when you want to…” Mark waved his hand, swaying on his feet.

“ Good lord, Mark, have you been wor-working non-stop?”

“ Yeah but it’s… yeah. I’m right as rain, don’t fret.” he mumbled.

“ Go to b-bed, Mark. I’ll tell you if you n-n-need to fix anything, okay?” Rabbit said with a smile. “Th-thank you.”

“ Yeah, no problem, Rabbit.” he muttered vaguely as he shuffled from the lab.

Rabbit shook her head as he left, carefully sliding off the worktable and taking a few steps, getting used to having a slightly different center of gravity. She draped her old, plain black button-up shirt over herself and ran to her room, where she put on one of her new dresses, grinning at herself in the mirror as she ran her hands over her face and dress.

“ I’m me.” she whispered to herself.

  
  


The Spine and The Jon waited excitedly in the living room for Rabbit, excited to see her after two days. She stepped into the room, bouncing a bit as she waved. The Jon stood up and ran to her, nearly knocking her over with a hug.

“ Rabbit, we missed you so much! It’s been  _ forever _ , Mark did a great job with the upgrade but it took ages!” he babbled, still clinging to Rabbit.

“ Th’Jon!” She groaned good-naturedly, “Get offa me, you’re being em-em-embarrassing!” The Spine grinned, and after a second,hugged the other two tightly.

“ Oh my g-g-god, stop bein’ so gushy!” she cried, trying not to laugh.

After a moment, The Spine let go, still grinning. “How do you feel?”

Rabbit thought for a moment. “Lighter. J-just better. It’s hard to explain.” she shrugged.

Suddenly, the pneumo mailbox chimed, a new letter delivered. The Spine opened up the tube, reading the message within, his face falling into a look of disdain as he finished it.

“ It’s from Cohen. One of his acts can’t go on tonight, so he’s putting us on instead.” The Spine sighed. “On such short notice… I’d better tell Mark.” he said, bitterness in his tone.

The Jon looked at Rabbit, worried. “Think you can go on tonight?”

“ Y-yeah, I should be fine.” She said, not quite convincing herself.

  
  


“ You’re still going to wear the mask.” Cohen said, once he’d been told about Rabbit’s gender upgrade. 

“ W-w-with all due respect, sir… I’d rather show my face t-toni-”

“ No.” Cohen cut her off forcefully. “You are  _ employed _ under me and you will wear the mask. This is  _ my _ theater.” he growled, shoving the black bunny mask in her hands. Rabbit stared at him, terrified by the absolute coldness in his eyes. He glared at her for a minute before his face melted into a grin. “Put on a great show, my dear.” With that, the artist turned and left the robot band backstage, staring dumbly at each other.

“ I don’t like him.” The Jon muttered.

Rabbit glared at the mask, tempted to break it in two. “W-w-we can’t even do anything about him. Without him, we’re done for. If it weren’t for us-us-us, Mark wouldn't be m-making money.” It was a common thought process she had, when worry kept her from relaxing enough to go into sleep mode at night.

The Spine sighed, putting a hand on Rabbit’s shoulder. “It’s best to just wear it, Rabbit.”

“ I know that, Sp-Spine… But why is he so in-in- _ insistent _ about it?” she mused, pulling the mask on. “It c-c-covers my vents and makes it hard to see.” she grumbled, as she did every time she put it on.

“ You’ll do fantastic anyway, Rabbs!” The Jon encouraged as he tuned his guitar. The Spine nodded in agreement.  Rabbit smiled.

“ Th-thanks, fellas.”

  
  


The stage lights seemed less harsh that night, and the audience's faces kinder to Rabbit. She never realized how much being on stage had made her nervous her until that anxiety was gone, replaced with the joy of doing what she enjoyed without discomfort.

“ Th-th-this song is something we’ve been w-workin’ on for a bit…” Rabbit smiled as she let the music wash over her.

“ _ It’s like a dream… Some silly fantasy…” _

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The lyric at the end is from StarScrap- https://youtu.be/cwOg5wI5Gj8?list=PL5Z_Ad4LDKGSbSe_ZSMjfWGsnsOeZlasw


	4. Arcadia

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mark and the automatons go on a vacation of sorts.

Rabbit and The Jon bounced excitedly on the couch, while The Spine gave Mark an incredulous look.

“ A vacation?” he repeated, eyebrows raised as the other two automatons chattered excitedly. “Mark, I hate to be the one to break it to you, but “vacation” implies that we’d actually be going somewhere.” Rabbit snickered.

Mark sighed. “Yes thank you, The Spine. I am aware of the definition of the word vacation. What I meant was we’d take a day to relax, get away from work. You all perform so often at Fort Frolic, and I’m always in the lab… We’ve barely been around the city! I’ve heard Arcadia is lovely. An underwater forest, can you believe it? I never could have imagined… It’s one of a kind!”

“ Well, it’s not like there’s many op-op-opportunities for there to be any  _ other _ un-underwater forests.” Rabbit said.

Mark shrugged. “Still. Would you be interested in go-”

“ Yes!” The Jon and Rabbit said nearly simultaneously.

“ It does sound nice.” The Spine conceded. “When would we go?”

“ Tomorrow.” Mark replied. The Spine nodded. He hadn’t expected Mark to plan a trip far in advance, he was always planning things at the last minute.

“ Ohhh, this is so ex-ex-exiting!” Rabbit said. 

“ I know! Rabbit, we should climb a tree, I haven’t climbed a tree since-” The Jon started, before being cut off by The Spine.

“ There are almost certainly rules against that, The Jon.” he said, with an eye roll. The Jon pouted.

“ I’m gonna go-go-go see what I’m gonna wear tomorrow!” Rabbit said as she stood, bouncing a bit on her feet excitedly..

“ I wanna help!” The Jon said, also standing, nearly knocking the other robot over in his excitement.

“ You two go do that, I’ll gather anything else we may need to bring.” Mark said, as he walked from the room. 

The Spine smiled. Mark was right, they’d all been working hard, especially in the past few months. Cohen had been putting the band on more and more often, sometimes for two shows a day, several times a week. It was draining, but the crowds seemed to love the automaton band. It helped that they now had an attractive female along with the other two attractive male robots on stage. Though he liked to think that they were there for the music, it was an obvious selling point that Cohen had played up in the advertisements.

The Spine knew that this vacation would be good for everyone. Some semblance of the world topside that everyone, even himself (though he would never admit it), missed dearly would reinvigorate the robots and Mark, he hoped.

  
  


The next day, The Jon and Rabbit were running around wildly in the foyer, yelling for Mark to hurry up before they had a meltdown. Even The Spine was tapping his foot by the door, impatient and excited to see Arcadia. Mark casually strolled to the door, ignoring the hyperactive bots as he checked his bag to make sure he had everything.

“ Maaaaaark! Hurry up, we’re gonna be late!” The Jon whined.

“ Late for what, exactly? We aren’t on a schedule.” Mark snorted, pulling out his key card for the front door.

“ I dunno, but we’re g-g-gonna be late!” Rabbit insisted, shifting from side to side impatiently. 

Mark grinned at the bots. “I don’t think I've seen you all this excited in a while!” he remarked. “Let’s go then!”

The Jon and Rabbit cheered loudly, and even the Spine had a wide grin as the group headed out the door.

  
  


The three robots got strange looks aboard the Atlantic Express as the excited automatons watched the city pass by. The trip would have been shortened by private bathysphere, but Mark hadn’t gotten around to buying one yet. The Spine glanced at the other passengers as they stared at the automatons.

“ Mark, when exactly are we getting our own bathysphere, again?”

Mark shrugged. “We’ll get one eventually. The Express works just as well anyway.” he said, his face buried in paperwork.

“ Why did you bring that along? Today was supposed to be for relaxing.” The Spine chided.

“ I’ll relax once we get into Arcadia, okay? Right now we’re just sitting, why not make use of it?”

“ Fair enough…” the robot conceded, “but once we get there, I ought to take the papers away.”

“ You’ll do no such thing. I need these, and I can’t risk you dropping them.” Mark replied.

“ What are they, anyway?”

“ Rudimentary designs for simple automatons.” 

The Spine looked at him in confusion. “More automatons? Is Cohen planning something?”

Mark shook his head quickly. “No, not even close. Nothing as advanced as you and the others’ of course. They’re simple...oh, what are they called? Basically they’re advertisements. Ryan has it in his head to make a theme park of sorts…”

“ A theme park of automatons?”

“ Yes. All they need to do is spout some pre-recorded lines and move a bit. Nothing too much, but since it’s Andrew Ryan we’re talking about, I’m getting paid pretty damn well.” he grinned. “Maybe enough to get that bathysphere sooner, huh?” With that he went back to the blueprints.

The Spine turned to the other bots, who were kneeling on the seats with their faces pressed to the window.

“ Look! You can see her riiiiight there!” The Jon insisted.

“ I d-d-don’t see her! Are you lying, Th’Jon?”

“ No! I swear, you can see her tail, it’s blue! And her hair is black, she just swam between those two buildings, you gotta squint.” 

The Spine raised his eyebrows. “What are you two looking for?”

“ Th’Jon s-s-saw a mermaid but I can’t see her.” Rabbit pouted.

“ I’ve seen several mermaids.” The Jon corrected. The Spine opened his mouth to remind the two that mermaids didn’t exist, but decided against it. He turned to the window.

“ Point to where you saw her, The Jon. Maybe I’ll see her.”

  
  


“ We h-h-have to  _ pay _ to walk in a forest?” Rabbit asked, annoyed as the group waited in line in front of the ticket booth. The bots were several inches taller than most people in line, but they couldn’t see past the crowd into Arcadia itself. Mark stood patiently in line as the bots wandered around the entrance a bit, marveling over the small plants that grew against the walls.

“ It’s been a while since we’ve seen real leaves.” The Spine remarked.

“ You’ve got that right.” The Jon said, plucking a leaf from a vine and twirling it between his fingers, watching it with rapt interest.

“ I can’t w-w-wait to see a tree again…” Rabbit sighed as she trailed her hands over the vines. “These are nice, but I b-bet there are flowers inside.”

“ And bugs.” The Jon added.

“ I wonder if there are any animals in Rapture…” The Spine said idly. “Of course there are bugs and such, bees I’m sure. There’s an apiary nearby, so of course… But are there any birds? Or domestic animals?”

Rabbit shook her head. “I sk-skimmed the contracts an’ stuff. No animals, they m-might breed too much, or their hair may g-g-get clogged in ventilation systems.”

“ Oh.” The Jon said, disappointed. The thought of never seeing a dog or cat again upset him.

“ That’s what I’d assumed.” The Spine said.

Mark bought the tickets at the booth and headed toward the bots casually. “Everyone ready to go in?” The three automatons nodded excitedly, grins wide and thoughts of animals mostly forgotten. The bots walked excitedly through the archways, and into Arcadia.

  
  


The trees stretched toward the glass ceilings, branches reaching for the far-off sunlight to augment the artificial sun-lights placed conveniently around the park. Rolling hills covered in hardy grass and mulch surrounded them, with picnickers and couples strolling visible among the trunks of the trees. The whole group walked slowly through Arcadia, eyes wide with awe as they took in the beautiful juxtaposition of the green leaves and brown branches with the ocean outside.

“ Ah! Look!” Rabbit cried, pointing up into a tree where a small blue bird chirped. It seemed to look at the automaton girl before fluttering to another tree, then flying out of sight.

“ Wouldn't fish kinda be like birds here? And birds are kinda like… squirrels now.” The Jon said thoughtfully.

Mark looked at the robot strangely. “That’s… Well, I suppose so.” he conceded.

“ Does that make humans kinda like… Cows or something?” The Jon continued as the group headed to a flatter, empty area, Mark spreading a blanket on the ground and sitting on it, a contented grin on his face. 

“ It’s nice to relax for a bit. And hear the sound of leaves rustling again.” he admitted. The bots sat around him, happy and content.

After a few minutes, a family set up their picnic a few feet away, occasionally casting strange glances at the robots. A minute later, the youngest girl made her way hesitantly to the bots, her blue eyes wide and shy as she approached.

“ You’re the ones that sing, right?” she whispered, blinking at The Spine. The silver automaton nodded, a gentle smile on his face. Before he could react, the girl hugged him quickly, whispered “I love you,” and ran back to her family, cheeks pink as she giggled.

“ L-l-looks like ya got a fan, Th’Spine!” Rabbit teased as The Jon grinned.

“ That was adorable.” The Jon said. Rabbit nodded in agreement.

It was quiet again for several moments before Rabbit gasped. “Th-th-the apiary is really close!” she said excitedly, pointing to a nearby poster. “Ohhh, Mark, can w-w-we go!” she begged.

Mark grinned. “You all go on ahead, I’m just going to enjoy the quiet.” Rabbit cheered, a cloud of steam erupting from her vents as she stood with a bounce, pulling The Spine up as she did so.

“ C-c-come on, fellas! There a-a-are bees, and honey, and b-b-beehives…!” she said excitedly as she pulled the other bots behind her, Mark watching them go with a tinge of relief.

As much as he cared for the automatons, he relished any quiet time he got, and the robots were the opposite of quiet. Quite literally, as their gears were always grinding and Rabbit’s clockwork ticked incessantly, not to mention all of their hissing steam and boilers… But on top of that, they were almost always talking.

Mark laid back on the blanket, lazily tracing the entwined branches with his eyes, drifting into a stupor as the sounds of faint laughter mixed with the distant whale songs and artificial breeze stirring the leaves.

  
  


Rabbit flounced through the glass hallway, careful to avoid the other people as she made her way as quickly as possible to Silverwing Apiary. The Jon and The Spine followed close behind, the copper automaton’s enthusiasm exciting them as well as she chatted on, barely letting the others get a word in edgewise. The bots entered through the ornate sliding doors into a small foyer area. Bees buzzed quietly as vending machines spouted their pre-recorded advertisements. A dark-haired woman looked up from behind the counter, eyebrows raised.

“ Oh. Swell. Automatons have walked into my apiary.” she deadpanned as she rung up a customer's jar of honey. “It’s not as if I was already dealing with things.  _ By myself. _ ”  She seemed to be murmuring to herself, but the customer nodded anyway, before leaving the apiary with a slightly confused expression. Rabbit approached the counter with a grin.

“ C-c-can we see the bees?” she asked sweetly. The Spine walked up behind her, putting a hand on her shoulder. 

“ I’m sorry, miss…” he started.

“ Denu. Tasha Denu.” the dark-haired woman said, crossing her arms.

“ Miss Denu, you’ll have to forgive Rabbit here, she’s very excited.” The Spine said as Rabbit pouted.

“ I’m ri-ri-right here, Spine, I can sp-speak for myself-self-self…” she said quietly.

Tasha looked the three automatons over. “How are you all even going about things on your own? You’re metal.” she waved her hand. “Don’t answer, it’s not important and I don’t care. I’ll set the timer for three minutes, don't touch anything, then I’d like you to leave.”

Rabbit nodded enthusiastically as The Spine squinted a bit, Tasha’s rudeness lost on her in her excitement.

“ Yes, I understand, I can see how busy you are, Miss Denu.” he said, tone friendly as he gestured to the empty room. “We wouldn’t want to impose on your time too heavily.” The Jon’s eyebrows raised as he glanced between the The Spine and Tasha. Rabbit tapped her foot impatiently as the silence stretched on for a few beats.

Tasha glared as she turned, the door behind the counter whirring open as she approached. She made a vague follow gesture, a few bees making their way from the room as the robots entered the room behind her. Three windows looked into a room filled with brightly painted beehives, bees buzzing around freely. Tasha set the smoke timer to three minutes and waved the automatons off as she stood in front of the control panel bitterly.

Rabbit made her way in first, the smoke-calm bees fluttering lazily around their hives. Rabbit looked closely at them, grinning as they landed in their homes. The Jon reached out to catch one, until he was stopped by a sharp word from Tasha. Even The Spine we enthralled by the small insects as they flew.

“ You never really appreciate small things like bees until you haven’t seen any in three years.” he remarked.

“ Two minutes.” Tasha warned. “I’ve got a customer who needs help with the Gatherer’s Garden, just don’t touch anything.” she said, stepping back through the automatic door. Rabbit nodded vaguely as she walked slowly through the room, stopping to peer into every hive as she passed. The timer began ticking faster as she neared the end.

“ Rabbit, I think it’s time we left.” The Spine said softly. She sighed but nodded as the timer ticked even faster. As the timer stopped, the smoke cleared from the room and the bees sped up.

“ Why’d she even set the timer? It’s not like the bees could sting us.” The Jon asked as they walked back into the foyer.

“ I didn’t want them to attack and try to sting you, they’d only end up dying.” Tasha said, as she handed a customer a glowing red jar. She turned to the automatons with a glare. “Are you done distracting me?” she asked.

“ Yes, ma’am. And thank you very much for letting us look at the bees.” The Spine said sincerely. Tasha’s face softened nearly imperceptibly. She nodded at him in acknowledgment. “Now if you’ll excuse us, Miss Denu, we’d best be leaving. Thank you again.”

“ Th-th-thank you!” Rabbit said cheerily.

The Jon, strangely, was silent. He stared at the man who had bought the glowing jar as they walked. He stopped, his eyes widening as the man used a syringe to inject the liquid from the jar into himself. His jaw dropped when bees began swarming his hand. Without a word, the gold automaton bolted from the apiary, leaving the other robots stunned. With rushed goodbyes, The Spine and Rabbit followed.

  
  


The Spine and Rabbit found The Jon, unsurprisingly, in a tree on the edge of the park, away from the other citizens. The Spine put his hand to his head in relief.

“ The Jon, what got into you back there? And please come down, you’ll get us kicked out.” The curly-haired robot only shook his head, silent.

“ I g-got this.” Rabbit said, and before The Spine could stop her, she began climbing the tree as well.

“ Get down, both of you!” he hissed, only to be ignored. He shifted nervously, looking out for anyone approaching as the other two robots had a quick, hushed conversation. A moment later, The Jon dropped down from his branch and Rabbit carefully hopped down after him.

The Jon’s usually bubbly demeanor was subdued as they three made their way back to Mark. He trailed behind the other two, head down.

“ What happened?” The Spine whispered to Rabbit as they walked.

“ Th-th-the...what’s it called? The Plasmids? Th’J-J-Jon gets bad vibes from ‘em. He said they sc- _ scream _ .” she shuddered. “Th-that was the first time he’d seen one in action. It just c-caught him off guard, shook him up a bit-bit-bit.” she looked back, worried. “He’ll b-be fine soon though, I think.” 

Mark sat up when he heard the bots approach, blinking a few times. “Thought you would be gone longer! It’s only been, what, half an hour?” he said as he stretched. The robots sat down around him, and Mark gave them each a worried look. “Did something happen? You got to see the apiary, right?”

“ We d-d-did.” Rabbit confirmed. “Th’Jon just saw s-something scary.” she said simply, giving him a look that begged him not to pry farther. He nodded slowly.

“ Okay, The Jon. If you’d like, we could leave now. We can always find another day to really explore.” Mark said gently. The Jon looked up at the worried faces, conflicted. After a moment, he shook his head.

“ Nah…”

“ I’d rather be here when we can all enjoy ourselves, The Jon.” The Spine said. 

The Jon sighed, steam curling up into the trees and nodded.

The three bots helped Mark pack up his blanket and made their way to the exit, much quieter than they had been.

On the Atlantic Express home, Rabbit stared out the window forlornly. She looked at The Jon every so often, hating how the sadness seemed to make everything around him seem duller and quiet. She thought for a moment, the ocean outside passing by the underwater railcar quickly. With an excited gasp, she put her hand on the gold automaton’s shoulder.

“ Hey, Th’Jon… Is that a m-mermaid out there?” she asked, pointing out the window.

“ Do ya see one, really?!” he asked, becoming excited as he pressed his hands to the window and looked out. Rabbit smiled.

“ I think s-s-so, look!”

 


	5. Glitched

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A rigorous performance schedule is cut short.

Mark stood awkwardly in Sander Cohen’s dressing room, the mad actor sitting at his makeup table, applying stage makeup as he spoke.

“ It’s a busy weekend, dear Mark, and the audiences demand a lot here.” he said, as he applied wax to his mustache.

“ But, sir… Four shows for two days straight seems a bit extreme, the automatons might not be able to-” Mark started, before being cut off.

“ They are machines. They do only as they’re programmed. If they get worn out, you can fix them. I don’t see why there should be an issue!” Cohen interrupted loudly.

Mark tapped his foot, wanting to argue, before Cohen stood and turned to him, anger burning in his dark eyes as he stepped forward.

“ Fort Frolic is mine. Fleet hall is  _ mine _ . I will have nobody telling me I can’t have an act perform. People beg me to perform here, did you know that, Mister Walter? They  _ beg _ . And I have been so gracious in giving your automatons many nights of performances, have I not? You will not make me regret this.” Cohen yelled, poking Mark's chest to accent his words. A tense second passed before Cohen backed away, a benign grin on his face. “Do not forget that you and your automaton band are under my contract.”

Mark paled a bit before nodding. “I’ll… I’ll tell them right away then.” he sighed, willing his voice not to shake as the mad artist grinned at him.

“ Very good. I will be eagerly awaiting their performances tomorrow.” Cohen said, before waving dismissively. Mark turned and left the room as quickly as he could, as the door slammed shut behind him.

  
  


“Eight shows this weekend?” The Spine laughed once in disbelief, as Rabbit and The Jon stared at Mark with confused expressions Mark looked out of the living room window and ran his hand through his hair.

“ You know how Cohen is. I…” he sighed. “I tried to reason with him. I really did. But he wouldn’t hear it.”

“ Well… I guess we’ll just have to make sure we’re fully prepared and checked up on before then, won’t we?” The Jon said.

Mark nodded. “I’ll make sure that you’ll all be able to handle the stress.”

“ M-maybe this won’t be so bad.” Rabbit said uncertainly. “I mean, I kn-know it’ll be a lot, but performing  _ is _ rather fun…” she shrugged.

“We're going to blow a circuit.” The Spine said, surprisingly angry. “We don’t belong to Cohen, he can’t push us like this…” The Spine grumbled, before noting how pale Mark had gotten. The Spine's eyes widened.

“Mark... We _don't_ belong to Cohen, right?” he repeated.

“No!” he said quickly, before looking down, unable to meet the robot's eyes. “Technically, no. The contract I signed... It's very restrictive. You all know that. You don't belong to him _per se_ , but... he has ultimate control of when and where you perform. And if you stop working for him, you can't perform anywhere else. He'll make sure of it. And then he'll make an offer to buy you all that I can't refuse. I mean that quite literally, I am completely unable to refuse.”

“That c-c-can't be allowed! Th-th-there's gotta be rules ag-gainst that!” Rabbit cried.

“This is Rapture. Businesses make their own rules.” Mark said miserably.

“You've essentially sold us.” The Spine said, disgusted as he stood. He left the room, leaving Rabbit and The Jon looking at Mark with hurt expressions. Tense, silent seconds passed before The Jon looked at Rabbit.

“You were right. He doesn't care.” The Jon said quietly.

“That's- No, The Jon, that isn't true.” Mark argued.

“Wh-wh-why'd you b-bring us here then, hm?” Rabbit challenged. “You b-b-brought us here as a safety net, in c-case you couldn't m-m-make money, didn't you-you-you? And if w-we can't make money, then we're u-useless to you!” Her voice raised as she became more enraged.

“That isn't true at all, Rabbit! I do care, you're part of the Walter family as much as I am, and I...” he sighed. “I didn't want to be alone down here. I was afraid of being alone” Mark looked away from Rabbit's glare.

“My wife... Judith. She had died. Just before we came here.” Mark admitted. Rabbit hissed a sharp exhale of steam as the Jon made a pitying noise.

“Wh-why didn't anyone tell us Judith died?” Rabbit said, the fury gone from her voice and replaced with sorrow.

“Nobody wanted to worry you all, and I... I ran away. I didn't want to stay, I didn't want to explain myself. I was supposed to come alone, you know.” Rabbit nodded and Mark went on. “I wanted to be alone, honestly. I wanted to escape all the memories, and all the people in that Manor who would pity me... But I guess some part of me didn't want to be alone. So...” he gestured to the two of them. “I knew I couldn't being a person along. I didn't want to because I'd just be reminded of her anyway, and I knew people would just bring her up. And you all were shut off for the night before I left. It didn't take much to get you into crates and label you all as _equipment_.” he snorted.

“But please believe me when I say that I do see you as more than that. I grew up with you all. Maybe you're metal, but you're definitely not just equipment.” he shakes his head bitterly. “Cohen though... He doesn't understand that. And he wants full control of every entertainer in Rapture it seems. If he doesn't have full control already.”

The three sat in silence for a minute. The Spine walked back in the room, sadness in his glowing green eyes.

“I was eavesdropping, and I'm sorry.” he started. “I... I was unfair in what I said. I should have known there was more to this.” he admitted.

Mark nodded as The Spine sat on the chair nearby. “There doesn't seem to be much we can do about Cohen. As long as these rigorous show-times don't happen often, we will be fine. Eight shows with only a few hours of rest... will be extremely hard. But we've been through more trying activities.” The Spine said.

“We really have,” The Jon confirmed.

“And perhaps, after all of this, you could talk to him. Maybe negotiate a less strict contract...” The Spine continued.

“I'm not sure how I could do that... But I will try.” Mark nodded. “Now, I'm going to need to see if there are any last minute tune-ups I can do, to make sure there are no catastrophic meltdowns on-stage.”

  
  


“A decent turn-out.” The Spine commented before the first show of the day. “I think we can expect more during the next ones. There's a lot more kids than usual too.” he remarked.

“Oh, that's always f-f-fun!” Rabbit said. “The little ones are always so-so-so excited. It's precious!”

The three automatons prepared themselves, pulling on their hats and Rabbit, as reluctant as usual, pulling on the black rabbit mask.

As the curtains pulled back, Rabbit smiled at the cheering audience, their stage lights filling her with energy as her performing protocols took over.

“Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, we are St-Steam Powered Giraffe!” Rabbit started.

“The singing musical automatons!” the three said in unison. Rabbit lead the band's introduction as usual, grinning out into the crowd with enthusiasm. Her eyes glanced over the first few rows, and her voice faltered a bit when her eyes met a pair of green ones that seemed familiar. She couldn't grasp why. Those green eyes sized her up, making her shudder uncomfortably.

She played off her falter as another glitch, but committed the green-eyed stranger to memory, resolving to tell the others about him between shows.

“Say, how many of you like the ocean? It's pretty wet, huh!” Rabbit started, the intro into one of her favorite songs falling naturally from her lips as the excitement from the audience booster her.

The show went on without interruption, the crowd cheering as the bots booted down after the final song. As the curtain fell, the bots looked at each other proudly, another show well-done. They re-tuned their instruments quietly for a moment before Rabbit spoke.

“S-so I saw someone-one-one in the au-au-au-au-au-” she stopped speaking for a moment, annoyed. She opened her mouth, and a burst of static came from within her throat, startling The Jon into nearly dropping his mandolin.

“Gah! What was _that?_ ” he said. Rabbit shrugged.

“Maybe you should go talk to Mark about getting that checked out, hm?” The Spine said, slightly worried. “We've only got half an hour until the next show.”

Rabbit nodded, resolving to tell the other two about the man _after_ she figured out what was wrong with her voice. She waved at The Spine and The Jon before half-running to the spare dressing room that Mark converted into a mini-workshop of sorts.

She didn't make it that far.

 


	6. Searching

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Spine, The Jon, and Mark begin the search for the lost Rabbit.

The Spine paced as the next show drew closer and Rabbit wasn't back from getting repairs yet. The Jon's foot tapped nervously as well, as he alternated between watching the clock and watching the door.

“What do you think's wrong with her? I hope she can perform...” The Jon said.

“I'm sure she's fine, The Jon... But if Mark doesn't hurry up on her repairs, we're going to start late. I have a feeling Cohen wouldn't like that.” The Spine shook his head.

“I can run down there and see if she's almost ready.” The Jon offered, bouncing a bit on his feet. The Spine nodded.

“Good idea. Tell Mark to hurry, we've got twenty minutes until show time.” The Jon saluted jokingly, and ran to Mark's workshop.

“Heya, Mark! Is Rabbit almost...” The Jon trailed off as Mark looked up from his newspaper with a confused expression.

“What's wrong?” he asked, folding up the paper and standing from the chair as The Jon looked around.

“Where's Rabbit?” the brass automaton asked. “Did she already get repaired?”

“Rabbit needs repairs?”

“Yeah, she headed here about twenty minutes ago...”

Mark looked at The Jon with wide eyes. “The Jon, I haven't seen Rabbit since before the performance today. Did she have a breakdown? Do you think she might have shut off by accident somewhere?” The Jon shook his head.

“Her voice started to glitch, all static-y and stuff. Otherwise she's fine. She should have gotten here, been repaired, and gotten back on stage by now...” The Jon muttered, his hands fidgeting nervously. The Spine jogged in quickly, looking annoyed.

“Mark, we've got to get her- Where is she?” he asked. “Cohen's getting impatient, and we've only got ten minutes. Is she already backstage?”

“Let's look there.” Mark managed to get out, fear choking him. The Jon looked at Mark, afraid.

“Do you think she's... She didn't get hurt, did she?” he whispered as the three headed back to the stage, calling Rabbit's name. Cohen glared at the three from the wings of the stage, arms crossed impatiently.

“Well? Where is she?” he said.

“We dunno!” The Jon said, fear making his voice shake as he searched desperately.

It didn't take long for them to realize that Rabbit was no longer in Fleet Hall.

“Where could she have gone?” The Spine said, pacing the stage.

“You can't perform with only two robots, can you?” Cohen said, sounding unconcerned as she looked out at the waiting audience. “And there is no chance she'll find her way back here within the next two minutes?” he said, voice almost terrifyingly calm as he turned to Mark and the two robots. Mark gave him a pleading look.

“There's no way she left on her own, sir.” Mark said shakily. The Jon looked at him, a surprised huff of steam hissing from his lips.

“Are you saying... You're not saying that someone took her, are you?” The Spine looked just as terrified, stopping dead in his tracks to stare at Mark.

“No. No! Nobody took her. Who would steal... And how? No.” The Spine denied, shaking his head.

“She wouldn't just leave on her own. And she isn't glitching either, we would have heard about it. This is the only explanation.” Mark said angrily.

“No...” The Spine repeated.

“We gotta find her! Now, we need to go now! We have to find her!” The Jon shouted, pulling Mark.

“We don't have a clue as to where... Cohen! Cohen, do you have security cameras set up anywhere?” Mark said suddenly.

“Indeed. If it'll help you get your robot back, I'll gladly look at the film for you.” The artist gave the two automatons a strange look. “You obviously care about the dear Miss Rabbit...” he said.

“Of course we care! She's like our sister.” The Jon said.

“Hm...” Cohen looked thoughtful for a moment. “I must tell the audience about this... technical difficulty. We can't have them panicking, you see, I must sweeten the issue, you understand. Then I'll have the film sent to your home, Mister Walter. Take your automatons home, and form a plan.” he paused. “I do hope you find her. And I hope she is okay.” With that, he turned and went through the curtains.

 

Mark, The Jon, and The Spine made their way home silently. The Jon looking around desperately as he walked, as if he hoped he'd see Rabbit walking through the crowd. The Spine kept his head down, the fear in his eyes hidden by his wide-brimmed hat. Mark seemed lost in thought as they got to the apartment, and wordlessly headed into his lab. The doors hissed shut as the robots sat next to the pneumo mail tube, waiting for Cohen to send the film. Mark left the lab a few minutes later.

“I've got the projector set up. It should play the film he sends.” he said, joining the robots as they waited tensely.

Ten minutes later, the pneumo chimed, and the three jumped up, The Spine quickly opening the slot and pulling out a box and a letter.

“He sent us about a few hours of film, the half-hour between shows and a while before and after. This is from the lobby of Fleet Hall, he says.” The Spine said, quickly scanning the note Cohen had sent with the package.

Quickly, they all headed to Mark's lab, where the projector sat in waiting. Shaking a bit with nerves, Mark loaded the film in, and watched the projector come to life.

The three watched the security film silently, looking at everyone who entered or left. With a cry, The Jon pointed to one man in particular.

“Go back! Go back and watch that man!” Mark rewound the film quickly, and they watched the man intently.

The man was average height, and had a somewhat lanky frame. His dark hair and glasses were almost hidden underneath a hat, but not quite. He glared at people passing as he entered the theater, but almost faster than Mark could see, he ducked into the hallway leading backstage.

“The Spine, he looks like...” The Jon's voice was barely above a whisper.

“I know.” The Spine said gravely.

“He doesn't look familiar to me.” Mark said, confused.

“That looks like Thaddeus Becile.” The Jon said.

“Impossible. Didn't he die?”

“Yes... But he had sons. The family resemblance is uncanny.” The Spine muttered. “If the Beciles have Rabbit...”

“Oh, no. No.” The Jon said, shaking his head. “Mark, we have to find them and get her back! They're going to hurt her!” he cried.

“I don't even know where to start!” Mark was incredibly pale, his breathing shallow. Though he'd never met any of the Beciles himself, he knew who they were, and how their families had interacted in the past. The two families had a rivalry that went back decades, a rivalry that had started a war. They had both been after the same resources of Blue Matter ever since the late 1890s.

The same Blue Matter that powered the three automatons.

Mark gasped. “Blue Matter! Can't you all sense it, or something?”

The Spine nodded hesitantly. “In Rapture, it just doesn't work as well. The city is so sprawled out, and I believe being underwater doesn't help. I usually have to focus just to find one of us in the same room... Not that I need to, it's not a skill that gets used often. Maybe if we knew what building she's in, we could probably hone in on her...”

“We'll check every building in Rapture if we need to.” The Jon said. “We need to start, we need to go now!” he stood, before Mark put a hand on his shoulder.

“No, we can't just run around Rapture. I'm sure they know that we're looking for her. They're going to keep an eye on us, and they’re going to have her well guarded. We need to be smart about this. We know she probably isn't near Fort Frolic, and she probably isn't around here. You two can check better than I could of course...”

The Spine closed his eyes, his core seeming to hum a bit louder as he focused. A minute later, he shook his head. “She's not in this building.”

Mark swore quietly, running his hands through his hair as he stood. “I have a map of every building in the city around here somewhere, I just need to find it...” He began shuffling the disorganized papers on his desk as The Jon and The Spine watched him tensely.

“Why don't we just walk everywhere and try and find her that way?” The Jon asked.

“I'm sure they'd be expecting that, hones- ah!” Mark held up a few papers with a nod. “Here are some maps, we can decide which buildings to check first.”

The three poured over the maps for an hour, writing down possible locations where she could be.

“No, there's no way she's in Hephaestus, that place is guarded too well, and I feel like the Beciles aren't too well-off to pay off security.” Mark thought out loud.

“Why do you think that?” The Spine asked as he jotted down a location.

“We would have heard about them, seen some advertisements for Becile products if they were producing anything. If they aren't producing things, then they aren't making money. No charity here in Rapture.” Mark answered. The Spine nodded, and they continued pouring over the maps in silence.

Several hours later, the three compared their maps.

“Ryan Labs, Fontaine Futuristics, Neptune's Bounty, the Sinclair Deluxe... We seem to be in agreement on several places.” Mark said.

“Where do we check first?”

 

The area was called “Pauper's Drop” for a reason; Mark looked around the destitute area and ramshackle shelters with wide eyes as the automatons walked close behind him. The sun barely filtered down that deep, even in the afternoon, so the area was cloaked in a muggy, dim lighting that threw more shadows than light.

“How long do we need to be here?” The Jon asked, looking around the dingy storefronts with worry.

“You don't feel her around here anywhere?” Mark asked. The Spine and The Jon shook their heads at the same time. Mark sighed.

“We can get out of here now th-” Mark started, before The Spine gasped.

“Oh no. The Jon, wait!”

Before either could react, the brass robot had bolted.

“What just happened?!” Mark muttered, confused. The Spine pointed as he ran to two men yelling at each other. One man looked slightly singed.

“What...?” Mark started, as the other man raised his hand. The singed man flew ten feet back, slamming into the side of a building. Mark stepped toward him, intending to see if he was okay, before being stopped by The Spine. He looked back with a glare.

“We've got to see if that man is okay!” he said.

“No, the other man, you're defenseless against him, he could hurt you and _we need to find The Jon_.” The Spine said worriedly, pulling Mark in the other direction. With a glance back, Mark followed.

They found The Jon in a back alleyway, his top hat in his shaking hands as he leaned against the wall. He looked up miserably as Mark and The Spine approached.

“I'm sorry... It was the screaming, I-I had to get away...”

“I didn't hear any screaming, The Jon. Are you okay?” Mark asked, putting his hand on the automaton's shoulder.

“The Plasmids. When people use them, I hear them scream.” The Jon explained in a whisper. “It hurts.”

Mark nodded slowly. “It's okay, don't worry about it. We're gonna get out of here, okay? Rabbit isn't here. We'll go home for a bit-” The Jon cut him off with a shake of his head.

“No. She's out there and they're probably going to try and hurt her. We have to find her soon. I'm sorry I ran off, next time I'll be more prepared.” he assured with a nod.

“Are you certain?” The Spine asked, looking at the short robot with worry. The Jon nodded.

“Yeah. Let's check Neptune's Bounty next.”

 


	7. Neptune's Bounty

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mark, The Spine, and The Jon manage to track down Rabbit.

Neptune's Bounty was a strange place. It had the appearance of a topside dock, complete with wooden boardwalks and small boats that traveled quickly through the shallow water, transporting supplies from bathyspheres. The irony of a dock underwater wasn't lost on Mark as the rented bathysphere ascended and its doors opened.

As soon as Mark and the automatons stepped out of the bathysphere, The Spine's eyes went wide.

“She's here. She's _really_ close, Mark.” The Spine muttered. Mark looked around at the busy dock where fishermen and buyers were hustling around, paying no attention to the three standing in front of the docked bathysphere.

“Where?” Mark asked. Both bots pointed to Fontaine Fisheries, behind the docks themselves where the freezers were held.

Mark realized then that he had no idea what to do next. He looked around thoughtfully for a moment, letting a plan formulate in his mind.

“Alright. First... We need to go somewhere else. Spine, do you remember the map?”

The silver automaton nodded. “And Rabbit is near the freezers of Fontaine F-”

“We aren't going there yet.” Mark said, motioning for The Spine to stop speaking. With a jerk of his head he began walking, the bots casting worried glances toward the fisheries as they followed Mark.

A few minutes later, they were in a dingy yet somehow pleasant bar, the Fighting McDonagh's. Mark sat at a window-side table, The Spine and The Jon looking at him with confusion as they sat across from him.

“We need a plan.” Mark said, tapping his fingers on the table and looking out the window ant the passing sea life. “We can't just go in there without any help or protection, who knows what kind of security they have in there? And we can't go to the authorities, they're too slow. We don't have time to buy weapons or anything...”

The two automatons glanced at each other.

“Mark... Don't forget, we were war-bots at one point.” The Spine pointed out. “We've got weapons. “

“Do you even think we'll need them?” The Jon asked nervously.

Mark sighed. “I had forgotten... And it's better safe than sorry, right? We don't know how she's being guarded, if she's awake, if we'll have to carry her out, if she's in one piece-”

“Don't say that.” The Spine warned. “She's fine. She has to be. She has weapons like us. She must just be powered down, otherwise she'd be out by now.” he said firmly.

Mark nodded. “If she's powered down, she may not be heavily guarded. Perhaps we can sneak in and get out with nobody being the wiser.”

“How do we get in?” The Jon asked.

Mark paused for a moment, running the map he had glanced over in his mind. “I doubt we could go in through any door. We can't get in through any cargo ways, because they're basically rivers.” He tapped his foot, deep in thought.

“Are there any bathysphere entrances within the Fisheries itself?” The Spine asked. Mark nodded after a minute.

“I think there are a few, but they're pretty far out of the way. Most of the bathyspheres bring things through the main entrance of Neptune's Bounty. And I'm not sure how we'd sneak past security. We're not exactly entering legally.”

The three went over plans in their heads for a few minutes longer, the time ticking away. The Spine felt every minute pass like a bullet to the chest, and The Jon fidgeted nervously, hating just sitting around while Rabbit was with bad people.

A moment later, the gold automaton spoke up.

“We could just go through through the doors. What's stopping us? They aren't going to hurt us while the area is busy, but I sorta doubt they know we're here. I mean, it's not as if they'd expect us to be able to feel where Rabbs is, so they probably think they have time.” The other two looked at The Jon expectantly, nodding for him to continue.

“We could just go in, right now while it's busy, and sorta... hide out somewhere until people leave. Then we go where she is, save Rabbit, and go home.” The Jon said.

“The Jon, you're a genius!” The Spine said, clapping the smaller bot on the back as a grim spread across Mark's face.

“That just might works, fellas!” Mark said as he stood.

 

It was hard for Mark to remain inconspicuous when he was being followed by two automatons. Around Fort Frolic, the automatons were a normal sight to be seen, but a completely uncommon sight around the docks. He tried to act as confident as possible, keeping his head up and looking exactly like he knew where he was going. The bots kept their heads down and tried to mimic Mark's smoother movements, with limited success. After half an hour of walking and dodging glances, Mark nodded to a supply closet, tucked away in a side, barely-used hallway. Mark casually walked up, opened the door and let the automatons follow before slamming it shut.

The room was less of a closet and more of a storage room. It was filled with old crates, broken transport boats, and random mechanical pieces that looked rusted enough to give Mark tetanus if he so much as touched them. He moved to the back of the room and sat on a crate, arms folded on his knees as he slouched.

“And now, we wait.”

 

Everything hurt, though robots were said not to feel pain. The normal grinding of the gears in her head sent a burning sensation through her body She laid as still as possible, hoping the pain would recede, and not wanting to aggravate it by moving in any way.

She eventually opened her eyes, as slowly as she could.

She had no clue where she was.

Ice and frozen fish hung from the ceiling above her, condensation from the cold and her steam swirling around in billowing clouds. She moved her head a bit, still moving as slowly as she could manage, and looked around at the boxes on high shelves that surrounded her. The fire in her head made it hard to focus on the words written on the boxes, so she didn't try.

Voices filtered in from another room nearby, and she struggled to pick them up.

“...In a freezer! These are not the ideal conditions for such a delicate process!” a voice said shrilly.

“I'm sorry, did you have a laboratory hidden away somewhere in this godforsaken city, Norman? Because I'd love to hear about it!” another voice snapped back. “It's not like we could have brought all of our equipment here anyway. If we'd known how long we'd be here, we would have brought more and got our own lab.”

“Yes, Ignatius, I am aware. You tell me this every day as if it's my fault.”

The voices bickered back and forth as they got closer to Rabbit, and she shut her eyes quickly, still listening.

“Once we're done with the extraction, we can get out of this madhouse the way we came in. Nobody will be the wiser as long as the ones we paid off keep their mouths shut.” the second voice, that belonged to Norman, said bitterly.

“You don't think Walter's coming for his bot?” The first voice, Ignatius, asked as the sounds of tools being laid out started. Rabbit's core went cold with fear.

“I'm sure he will, eventually. But I don't think he'd check here first. We should hurry up though I suppose, just in case.” A few seconds of silence passed, before Rabbit heard the distinct sounds of scissors and felt her dress's torso cut away. In the back of her mind, she realized that she was vaguely upset they were ruining her stage dress, but glad they weren't cutting the bust.

She also realized how absolutely terrified she was.

Another moment passed before she felt the bolted-down plate on her midsection that covered her core being loosened. Panic overtook her mind as she realized with a jolt that these two were after her core.

Her eyes flew open and she grabbed the wrist of the man who was nearest to her. He gave her a look of absolute fear, color draining from his face as Rabbit squeezed his wrist nearly hard enough to break it. The wrench fell from his hand as he cried out. The second man watched, frozen.

“D-Don't just stand there, Norman! Stop her!” Ignatius shouted as he yanked his wrist out of Rabbit's grip and scurried backwards. Norman's eyes widened as he brought up his hand shakily. Rabbit sat up, but before she could get her feet under her, a bolt of electricity shot from his hand and hit her directly in the chest.

She fell back down with a clang, leaving the two terrified men breathing heavily.

“We need to hurry. We can't have that happening again.” Ignatius said, clutching his wrist.

 

The Jon bounced his leg nervously. He had a feeling that things were worse than they seemed. He looked back and forth between The Spine who stood stoically against the wall, head down as he worried, and Mark who seemed lost in thought.

“Can we go now?” The Jon said, nearly vibrating with nerves as she stood. “I feel like we should go now.” Mark looked at his watch, eyebrows creased.

“I'm not sure when activity around here dies down. We could take a look...” he said as he stood. He motioned for the bots to stay back as he opened the door a crack. He closed it a few seconds later with a nod.

“As long as we stick to the shadows, we should be okay. You guys can locate Rabbit exactly from here, right?” Both automatons nodded.

“Okay, The Spine. You take the lead.”

 

The freezer wasn't even locked. Mark counted himself extremely lucky for that. The sounds of the automatic door sliding open were masked by the whirring of the freezer. The three stepped inside silently. Mark's heart pounded in his chest as they walked deeper into the crowded freezer, the sound of voices becoming clearer as they approached.

“...unstable when we remove it?”

“Maybe, but we've got the container padded, and we should be able to leave within two days. We'll be careful.”

The Spine was the first one to look around the corner of the high shelves and see them. The two men has Rabbit laid out on a table, her abdomen wide open and her blue core glowing brightly in its clear cylindrical container, wires spilling haphazardly around it as the taller of the two men worked on removing it. Before Mark or The Jon could react, The Spine had stepped from behind the shelves, his sleeve tearing as his Tesla weapon readied. The two men looked at the silver bot with confusion and anger.

“Norman, hit him!” Ignatius barked.

For Mark, everything seemed to move slowly. The Spine's arm fired a blast of electricity before the man could get his arm raised, sending the man reeling against the tale where Rabbit laid. The other man tried to help his brother, but before he could, his arm slammed into Rabbit's exposed core, nearly knocking it free. It began glowing like a small sun and humming loudly. The Jon grabbed Mark around the waist and pulled him against himself, turning his back to the two men and The Spine as the world turned blue.

 

There was blood. Blood on his shirt, on The Jon, on the floor. That's what he noticed first when his eyes opened. Heat surrounded him as he blinked at the wavering lights around him.

Next, he noticed the cracked concrete walls. Some part of him knew that was unsafe and they needed to get themselves out immediately, but he couldn't find the words or remember how to speak. Everything around him throbbed. He managed to focus on The Jon's face after a minute had passed. The gold robot was yelling something Mark couldn't hear.

The brightness and heat became too much, and Mark let his eyes slip closed again.

 

The Spine had managed to get behind the heavy, high shelves as Rabbit's core melted down. He realized with a flood of relief that The Jon had wrapped himself around Mark, acting like a blast shield and protecting him from the worst of the explosion.

The other two men weren't so lucky. There was absolutely no trace of them in the area where Rabbit still laid. She had fallen off the table, looking like a broken doll as her core glowed weakly in her body. The Spine ran to her, doing his best to arrange the wires inside of her, knowing Mark would do a better job later but knowing they needed to get out immediately. He could feel the Blue Matter inside of her humming softly, and though she was broken and they were all in grave danger, he felt absolute relief.

 

The Spine and The Jon managed to carry Mark and Rabbit back to the bathysphere without incident, the docks nearly empty in the night. The Jon laid Mark down carefully on one bench, while he sat next to The Spine who refused to let go of the inactive automaton girl. He held her hand as the bathysphere rushed through the ocean toward home.

 


	8. Healing

Mark woke up to a pair of glowing blue eyes very close to his face. He winced as The Jon said his name several times, relief flooding his metal face as Mark shook his aching head. He looked around and realized he was back home, his head and arm bandaged tightly.

“Hey, The Jon... What...?” he started, too exhausted to continue.

“Oh Mark, we were so worried... Rabbit's core exploded and we carried you both out but apparently the room we were in flooded soon after we left, and you got hurt and we think the Beciles are... The Beciles are gone, and Rabbit won't turn on and Spine's been panicking all day, but I'm sure you can repair Rabbit and everything will be swell...” The Jon babbled, as Mark tried to keep up.

“Whoa, wait The Jon, slow down.” Mark interrupted, his good arm raised as he tried to sit up. “Rabbit. Where is she?”

“She's in your lab. Some of her wires are messed up and she's kinda dented, but Spine thinks she'll be fine when you can look at her core and fix the connections.” Mark nodded.

“And...” he hesitated. “The Beciles are gone?”

“They're... Yeah. There was no trace of them.” The Jon said. “Rabbit's core exploding...” he shook his head solemnly. “It was bad. We're really lucky, Mark. You were lucky we were behind those shelves, and the shelves didn't fall... Even then, I wasn't quick enough...” he said dismally, gesturing to Mark's broken arm.

“Rabbit is back. That's all that matters.” Mark murmured, exhaustion slurring his words a bit as he laid back on his bed. Within seconds, Mark was asleep again.

The Jon stood, resisting the urge to continue watching Mark just in case he woke up and needed something, and made his way to the workshop where Mark repaired the bots. Rabbit laid on the table, inactive as she had been for the past day and a half. The Spine sat in the chair nearby, the robot's usual calm nature shattered by worry.

“He woke up for a few minutes, talked for a bit, then went back to sleep. He's going to be fine, Spine. When he's better in a few days, he'll be able to fix her.” The Spine looked slightly relieved.

“I'm glad Mark is okay.” he said, giving the gold automaton a half-smile. “He'll be up in no time, I'm sure.”

“Yeah! In a few weeks time, everything will be okay.” The Jon said encouragingly.

The Spine let the shorter automaton's certainty calm him, and nodded.

“Everything will be okay.” he repeated.

 

“Are you sure you're ready to move, Mark? You can give it one more day if you need to.” The Jon fretted as Mark stood shakily.

“My legs are fine, The Jon.” he assured the robot, leaning a bit on the bed as he made his way around. “And I won't be up for too long, fixing Rabbit will take an hour- two hours, tops.”

The Jon nodded slowly. “Okay. But Spine and I are gonna help you, okay?”

Mark sighed. “I'm going to need the help.” he admitted.

The two made their way to the workshop, The Jon standing close to Mark _just in case,_ worry making his hands twitch as the two walked into the room. The Spine looked up with wide eyes, standing and leading Mark into the chair he just left.

“Boys, I'm fine. I'm okay! You don't have to worry about me.” he muttered, standing back up and glancing over Rabbit. Most of the damage seemed to be internal, but nothing too difficult to fix. “I just need to figure out where to start. The Jon, could you hand me that magnifier?”

 

For the next two hours, The Jon and The Spine watched tensely as Mark worked on soldering wires and connections to Rabbit's glowing Blue Matter core and chassis. Occasionally, The Jon would try to make him sit and take a break, and Mark would argue until he dropped it. The Spine hovered close to Mark as he worked, quick to hand him any tool he needed.

Finally, as the third hour passed Mark took a step back, exhaling and running his hand through his hair.

“I think she's ready to be booted back up.” Mark said. He flipped a few switches on the back of Rabbit's neck and took a step back. Her clockwork whirred into motion.

Her eyes were open in a flash, panic immediately gripping her core as she bolted upright. She froze once she saw the worried and relieved faces of Mark and her brothers. With a sob-like noise, Rabbit threw herself at The Jon and The Spine, shuddering as black oil dripped from her eyes. The two automatons held her close, black nearly dripping from their eyes as well as Rabbit sobbed incoherently into her bothers' chests.

“I d-d-d-didn't wa-wanna d-die!” she choked, still clinging to her brothers. “I th-th-thought I wa-was gonna-a-a, it hur-hur-hurt.”

“You're safe, you're safe.” The Jon repeated, petting Rabbit's long black hair as she shuddered.

“H-he had Electrobolt, I c-c-couldn’t- I couldn't run, I kn-kn-knew he l-l-looked familiar in the cr-cr-croud, I sa-a-aw him.” she continued desperately. The Spine hushed her, rubbing her back.

“Listen. You're safe now. You're okay. You're home and fixed.” he murmured.

“You're okay, Rabbit.” The Jon added.

She made an odd hiccuping noise as steam poured from her boiler. She took a step back from the others reluctantly, trying to wipe the oil from her face in vain. Mark slumped into the chair with relief, watching the bots.

“I-I was so scared...” she breathed. The Jon nodded encouragingly, taking her hand. Rabbit shuddered again.

“B-before my voice g-g-glitched out, I was g-gonna tell you both I saw som-someone who looked fa-fa-familiar in the audience. But I h-had to-to-to go get repaired of c-course, so I headed to M-Mark.” she closed her eyes. “An-and the man was there... And he z-z-zapped me. I woke up an-an-and they were try-try-trying to remove my c-core.” she made the strange hiccuping noise again, oil flooding her eyes as she shook.

“Then we rescued you, and brought you home, where you're safe. They aren't going to come for you, or any of us, again.” The Spine assured her soothingly. Rabbit nodded, before finally turning to look at Mark. Her eyes widened when she saw the bandages.

“M-Mark! You g-g-got hurt.” she said sadly as she carefully took his non-broken hand and patted it.

“I'm fine, don't worry.” Mark assured her. “I am tired though. If you don't mind, I think I'm going to rest a bit.” He stood slowly.

“Need help?” The Jon asked, stepping forward.

“No, I'm okay.” Mark said as he shuffled from the room.

Rabbit wiped at her face again, smearing the oil more than she was wiping it off.

“I'm glad your safe.” The Spine said, smiling at Rabbit. The Jon nodded enthusiastically in agreement. She smiled weakly.

“I'm glad I'm b-b-back.” she whispered.

 

The days passed quickly. Cohen had canceled the bots' shows for the following few weeks, letting Mark rest and the bots recuperate after their ordeal. Rabbit tended to stick close to her brothers almost constantly, afraid of being alone, though she wouldn't admit it out loud. The other two didn't mind; the fear of losing her forever still hung over them, despite their best efforts of forgetting. Mark was mostly healed and back to tinkering within the month, against The Spine's pleas of another week's rest.

Eventually, Rabbit's kidnapping and core explosion seemed nothing more than a distant nightmare. Though it took months, things returned to normal.

As those months faded into years, things began to go downhill again.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, thank you so much for reading this far! It really means a lot to me. Sorry for the short chapter but let me assure you, things are going to start picking up as the fic comes to an end. The next chapter won't be posted until January, because of Christmas and New Years and I'm not sure when I'll have free time to write, sorry. I hope everyone has a fantastic holiday and an amazing new year!


	9. Problems

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things aren't getting better and Mark and the bot's outlooks are bleak as the city of Rapture begins to crumble.

A lot can change in nine years. In the isolated so-called utopia of Rapture, tensions rose between the city's founder Andrew Ryan and Frank Fontaine, a business mogul with wealth that dwarfed Ryan's own. Once Fontaine was killed in a smuggling raid and Ryan took control of his assets, there was a clear divide made in the city. People saw each other as one of Fontaine's parasites or one of Ryan's brainwashed followers. Either way, murder was a crime that was on the rise, just behind attempted contact with the surface. Citizens were becoming restless, and things often turned violent.

Though Mark and the automatons were never involved in Rapture's politics, they still found themselves affected. Once Mark had taken a job with Ryan Security building security turrets and cameras, he found himself being tailed home on multiple occasions. He was terrified, checking over his shoulder constantly and waiting for the shot that would send a bullet through his head to ring out. Even the bots, as oblivious as they could be, sensed the tension in the city and Mark's stress, setting them all on edge.

The Spine tried to hide his relieved sigh when Mark walked through the door after work. The silver automaton stood and watched as Mark tossed his hat on the table. He noticed The Spine's concerned stare and waved.

“Is everything okay, Spine?” he asked.

The Spine nodded hesitantly. “Just making sure you're okay. The radio's been on an automated loop for the past hour, Andrew Ryan has instated a curfew and a heavier restriction on bathysphere travel.”

Mark's eyes went wide and he rushed past The Spine and into the living room where The Jon and Rabbit sat worried, as the prerecorded news station droned on. The monotone female voice went on about the new ten o'clock curfew, the mandatory tracking on all personal bathyspheres and restriction on non-emergency sub travel, and a limit on how many people could be in a group without a permit.

The recording looped again, and the three automatons turned to Mark with confused and fearful expressions. He blinked a few times, processing. The city that prided itself on being free was quickly becoming a dictatorship, and there was no escape. The thought sent Mark's mind reeling and he had to sit down, running his hands over his head and sighing.

“M-Mark? Y-y-y-you okay?” Rabbit asked softly, worry evident on her nearly entirely oxidized copper face. Mark hesitated before shaking his head slowly.

“No. No, I'm not.” he said frankly. “Things are going from bad to worse here and there's no way we're getting out.” he said, voice lowering as his heart pounded in his chest. He put his face in his hands, trying to hide the terror he knew must be showing on his face. “Rapture has become a police state and we're going to die h-”

“Mark, please.” The Spine interrupted quickly, as The Jon and Rabbit looked between the two with panicked expressions. For the next several minutes the only sounds in the room were the droning of the news, the clockwork and hydraulics within the robots, and Mark's hectic breathing. The bots watched helplessly as Mark broke down, standing quickly and half-running to his workshop, the door sliding shut behind him.  
The Spine turned the radio off and sat in the seat Mark had left.

“What can we do, Spine?” The Jon asked. “We need to help Mark... but how?”

The Spine shook his head. “I don't know. I don't know if there's anything we can do. This is... The whole situation doesn't look good.”

“Maybe there's something we can do, we can get Mark out of here and go home to Calif-”

“We're tr-tr-trapped here, Th'Jon, face it-it-it. We're n-n-n-n-never gonna get ou-out and we're g-g-gonna ru-ru-rust here forev-ev-ever. If we d-d-don't drown f-first.” Rabbit said bleakly.

“You don't know that, Rabbit! There has to be some way we can get Mark and us out. Right, Spine?” The Jon insisted, looking to the older robot for guidance.

“I'll do anything I can to keep us safe. Whether that involves staying or going, I don't know.” he said carefully. He had no idea what to do, but he wasn't going to let the others know that. Despite being the second-oldest, he knew he was the one the others looked up to. As much as he wanted to panic, he couldn't.

As the three bots sat in the quiet living room, the pneumo chimed, a letter sliding through the tube and into the deposit box. The Jon stood and got the note, a small frown appearing on his face as he read the envelope.

“It's from Cohen. It's been a while since we've heard from him directly...” he remarked. He tore open the envelope, scanning the letter with a look of concern. “He's cutting another show from our schedule.”

“We-we-we're d-down to one show a week.” Rabbit sighed. “And w-w-with less people showin' up, we w-weren't makin' m-m-much in the first pl-place.”

The Jon sat back on the couch next to Rabbit sadly. “We'll get through this.” he said, though he didn't sound convinced. “We've been through worse, and we'll be... we'll survive.”

Rabbit opened her mouth to argue, before being interrupted by The Spine.

“You're right. We'll get through this too. At least with fewer performances, we won't need to be tuned-up as often. Mark is under a lot of stress, and he worried about us when we were on stage quite a bit. Maybe this is for the better.”

Rabbit shook her head angrily. “Y-y-you can be as p-positive as ya w-w-want, Spine, but we-we-we're gonna d-die d-down here.” With that bleak remark, she stood and headed for the door.

To her surprise, The Spine stood as well and blocked her way, green photo-receptors boring into Rabbit's mismatched ones. “No. You're wrong, Rabbit. If I need to build my own bathysphere to get us out of here, then I will.” he said intensely. Rabbit only glared, but her hands shook, steam clouding from her vents as she stared the silver automaton down.

Suddenly, The Jon took her hand. She turned her head to see him looking up at her.

“What's _really_ wrong, Rabbit?” he asked softly.

She looked back and forth between her brothers. “I... I c-can't save e-either of you-you-you.” she admitted in a whisper, eyes wide. “Th-this city's g-gone to hell and th-th-there's nothin' I c-can do to g-get you out. I'm... I'm the ol-oldest, and I pr-promised Pappy I'd pr-pr-protect you b-both. But here, I c-can't. We're s-surrounded by-by-by water. I can't-t-t get you out.”

The automatons stared at Rabbit for a minute. She quickly wiped a drop of oil from her eye as she shook her head.

“I... I'm sorry. I f-f-failed you, and I failed Pappy, b-because we're tr-trapped here.”

“That isn't your fault, Rabbs. It's nobody's fault. Stuff just... happened.” The Jon said softly, patting Rabbit's hand.

“Y-yeah, but-” she started before The Spine raised his hand.

“None of use had any control over what happened to Rapture. You can't blame yourself for this.” he said softly.

Rabbit bit her lip, the black paint chipping a bit. She nodded slowly.

“M-my fault or not, I'm g-gonna help get us outta here in an-an-any way I can.” she said, her expression determined. The Jon hugged her, nodding as he squeezed her tightly.

“I'll help too!” he said.

“We're going to help each other no matter what.” The Spine said with finality. “And we'll get Mark out as well.” he added.

The three bots nodded, The Jon giving rabbit one more pat before letting her go. She smiled at the others.

“Th-thank you, fellas. N-now, I’ll b-be back later, I'm gonna g-g-go check on Mark.” she said, walking out and down the hall to Mark's workshop.

“Do ya think she's really okay?” The Jon whispered.

The Spine didn't answer. They both knew that none of them were going to be okay while they were in Rapture. They knew the chances of them escaping were low enough to be almost certainly impossible. Even The Jon couldn't muster up the positivity to assure himself that everything would turn out okay.

Silently, The Spine went to his own room, the door hissing shut and leaving the brass robot alone in the living room. The Jon sat in front of the full-wall window and stared out at the sea, searching for the mermaids he hoped had left the city far behind.

 


	10. Programming

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mark realizes just how quickly Rapture is descending into chaos, and he may be one of the few people qualified to get the automatons out of the city.

The morning was always always tense as Mark prepared to leave for work. Rabbit hovered by the foyer door, watching Mark put on his coat.

“Y-y-you should st-stay here to-to-to-today, M-Mark.” she said, wringing her hands nervously.

Mark sighed. “Don't tempt me. I'd love to stay, but with the rising prices of everything... I can't afford not to go.”

Rabbit's shoulders slumped. “Y-y-you're right, I know... But I-I-I'm scared.”

“There's nothing to be afraid of, Rabbit.” Mark assured her. “I don't stray too far from the safey of the crowds.” he said. Rabbit didn't look convinced. Mark sighed. “I won't take any unnecessary risks, Rab-”

“Mark! I think you should hear this...” The Spine called from the living room. Concerned, Mark and Rabbit made their way into the room. The Spine stood by the radio, arms crossed as he concentrated on the rapid-fire voice of the radio reporter,

“...Fires caused by irresponsible plasmid and Molotov cocktail use are spreading across several buildings within the area, bringing the air quality down to dangerous levels. Causalities on both sides of the fray are high, though the civilians seem to be winning out against the police. I repeat, there is a skirmish of sorts between Andrew Ryan's police and armed civilians who seem to be working for Atlas, as evidenced by their rallying cries and well-preparedness. Citizens are urged to stay indoors today...”

Mark wanted to be surprised, but the threat of full-blown battles had been hanging over Rapture for months. It had only been a matter of time, and Mark knew that this would only escalate into full-blown war.

The Jon, who had been still and silent up until that point, let out a choked cry.

“I wanna leave. I wanna go home.” he whispered, covering his face with his hands. Rabbit put her arm around her brother, rubbing his shoulder and whispering hushed reassurances as she glanced at Mark with wide eyes. Mark took a deep breath.

“You are. You're getting out of Rapture if it's the last thing I do.”

The three bots looked at Mark warily. They knew that Mark saying that was enough to get him into trouble, but they knew they wouldn't stop him.

A silent moment passed before Mark looked at his watch. “I'm going to head to work.” he said. Rabbit gave him a worried look.

“A-a-are you s-sure you wanna, Mark? I th-th-think they'll und-d-derstand if ya st-stay home today.”

Mark nodded. “I need to plan some things. Make some preparations, of sorts. I'll be fine.” he said.

“Be careful, Mark.” The Spine said as he watched Mark leave.

 

Ryan Security wasn't Mark's first choice of workplace, but it was the only place that was hiring engineers when he was looking. He focused primarily in the AI-programing portion of security; he made sure the security cameras and weapons turrets only targeted those who bio-signatures matched up with criminals in the databases. It wasn't infallible by any means, but it worked for Ryan and those able to afford the hefty fees. He also helped with the actual design of the automatonic weapons.

He was great at what he did, thanks to his years of training with his father and the rest of the Walter family, so for the most part his superiors left him alone to his own devices.

Which was how Mark managed to analyze the programming for his bathysphere's security protocols without interruption. There was no way to turn the tracking and security off once it was engaged, but if he loosened some parameters and cut off a few signals, he knew he could make sure that the three automatons wouldn't be tracked or spotted while making an escape.

He did all of this with the knowledge that he wouldn't be joining them. Although It made things easier on him to disable certain things, he did it all with fear weighing him down. He had never felt so claustrophobic in the city. Every drop of water that separated him from the sky seemed to be held back by nothing more than paper. Everyone who passed his worktable seemed to be staring at him, breathing down his neck and waiting to report him. He did his best to swallow his terror and keep a neutral expression as he tampered with the programming for the bathysphere.

For Rabbit. For The Jon. For The Spine.

It was the least he could do, considering he was the one who had brought the automatons to the city in the first place. He wasn't going to be the reason they were buried at sea with the rest. With him. He was at least another day from completely finishing the programming, and as he clocked out and made his way home, his mind was preoccupied with wires and strings of numbers.

His concentration was broken when he was greeted by a very concerned The Spine as he opened his front door.

“Mark, there's a problem.” he said urgently as Mark blinked up at him.

“I've noticed.” Mark said dryly.

The Spine narrowed his eyes. “That isn't what I meant. There's _another_ problem.”

“Oh no...” Mark muttered as The Spine led him into the workshop. Rabbit sat on the table nervously as The Jon patted her hand. He gave Mark a relieved look as he walked in.

“Mark will fix you all up, Rabbs, so don't worry!” The Jon assured his sister as he took a few steps back. Rabbit looked miserably at her hands as Mark gave her a cursory glance.

“What's the issue?”

“My-my-my r-r-right leg. I can't f-feel it or m-move it.” she muttered.

“Put it up on the table, let me see.” Mark said, concerned. She picked up her leg and put it on the table, her left leg next to it bouncing nervously. Mark was distracted by this very human nervous tic for a moment before he cleared his throat. “I need you to be still, Rabbit.”

“I'm s-sorry.” she said sheepishly.

Mark nodded as he began unbolting the outer layer of copper plating, revealing the wiring and structure underneath. His eyes went wide as he took in the extent of saltwater damage that corroded and rusted her infrastructure.

“Wh- how did you not... Surely you must have known that your wires and metal were rusting away?” Mark asked her incredulously.

“I-I-I d-didn't wanna b-bother ya.” she muttered. “But... I-I-I-I've been gettin' gl-glitchier and more broken-d-d-down for a while now. I was j-j-just dealin' with it.” she confessed.

Mark had noticed how her vocal stutter had been getting more pronounced in recent years, but he'd assumed that, if it really bothered her, she would have come to him to have it fixed. The fact that her joints and inner workings were damaged by saltwater damage would have been found sooner, before her leg stopped working.

He took a deep breath, looking at her leg again. He shook his head as he realized the extent of the damage. “It looks like the inner workings need to be rebuilt from scratch.”

“Is that hard?” The Jon asked.

Mark sighed. “Yes. And... I don't have the materials to do it.” he admitted.

The room was silent as the words settled in.

“S-so that's it? I'm br-br-broken forever.” Rabbit said, her tone resigned.

“Mark, you have to do _something_.” The Spine said urgently.

“I can get her at least partially mobile. I can't get feeling back, that would involve completely rewiring and remaking her sensors. With what I have, I can't do that. She will be able to walk, but she'll have a limp.”

“Oh, that's not good...” The Jon groaned.

“Um.” Rabbit said, reminding everyone that she was still there. “So am I doomed t-t-to never feel my leg again? W-w-will this happen-en-en to my other limbs?”

“No. You will be fixed. Not here in Rapture, but you will be fixed.”

“Yes, we-we-we can just take a q-quick 'sphere ri-ri-ride to the nearest topside hardware store, n-no-no issue.” she said.

“No need to be sarcastic.” Mark sighed. “I have a plan. I'm going to personally install the security protocols on my bathysphere. It'll be bioscanning for human life, not robotic life. You three are getting out of here.”

“When?” The Spine asked.

“As soon as possible.” Mark said, determined. “There are a few more things I need to do, but you should be able to go before... Probably before January.” he said, glancing at the calendar he had hanging by the worktable.

“Th-th-that's, what, two weeks?” Rabbit asked, excited.

“I'm nearly finished with the actual re-writing of the code and such. Installing it shouldn't take more than a few hours. All we really need to do after that is wait for the right time.”

“But... You won't be coming with us?” The Jon asked quietly.

“I can't. Life scanners would pick me up before we even left the city lines, we'd be hit with a torpedo and on the ocean floor before we'd even realize it.” he said.

“Oh, Mark...” Rabbit said, choking up as she leaned toward him to give him a hug. “Once we-we-we're on the surface, we can t-t-tell someone about Rapture, then-”

“No.” he interrupted. “There are things down here that should never see the surface.” he said, patting Rabbit before taking a step away from the crying automaton. “Could you imagine the United States or British or Soviet government getting their hands on Plasmids? On the advanced weapons and technology?”

The Spine shook his head. “I know you're right... But I wish you weren't.”

“But if we tell someone up there, we can save all of these people!” The Jon argued.

“We save everyone down here, but even just Plasmids in the wrong hands, it could start a full blown war between countries with spliced-up soldiers. Things would get too far out of hand, and once all of the foot soldiers destroy each other, they'll start dropping atom bombs.” Mark explained.

“You don't know that!” The Jon said, raising his voice.

“Th'Jon... He's r-r-right.” Rabbit said softly, trying to calm the brass automaton as he began shaking, glaring at Mark. “We can't save ev-ev-everyone here. All we can d-d-do is get out ourselves.”

“We can't let everyone here die.” The Jon balled up his fists. “If we get out, we need to tell someone, we can-”

“Who would we go to? Who would believe us?” The Spine asked. “Who would believe a few automatons saying that they've been in an _underwater city_ for over ten years?”

The Jon continued to shake with rage, steam billowing around him in angry clouds as he stomped from the room.

“I'll go calm him down.” The Spine sighed.

“And I'll get to work on your leg, Rabbit.” Mark said, nodding as The Spine followed the smaller bot out of the room.

“You're g-g-going to... die here, aren't you?” Rabbit asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

Mark shrugged. “Humans all die eventually, doesn’t really matter where I am. I've mostly accepted it.”

“I'm s-s-sorry, Mark.”

He gave the bot a half-smile. “There's no reason for you to be sorry, Rabbit.”

“I st-still am, though.” she whispered.

“I'm sorry too.”

 


	11. Happy New Year

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The band is given a chance for one last performance in Rapture.

Mark opened the plain envelope that came through the pneumo and immediately dropped it once he saw the name stenciled on top.

“From the Desk of Andrew Ryan-” the message started. With shaking hands, Mark picked up the message and read it with a pounding heart.

_“From the Desk of Andrew Ryan- Greetings Mister Walter, I've heard quite a bit about your automaton band and I would be honored if they would perform at a New Years masquerade party I've put together at the esteemed Kashmir Restaurant. You are extended an invitation to the party was well. Thank you for your time. Signed, Andrew Ryan.”_

Mark reread the notes several times, confusion outweighing the fear he'd been carrying around for the previous several days. Andrew Ryan- the founder of the city itself and multimillionaire, even on the surface- asked for the band personally. Mark couldn't help but grin a bit. Although there wasn't much to be exited about while they were still in Rapture, he hoped that hearing that they'd been offered a performance by Ryan himself would make the bots happy.

His excitement faded a bit once he realized they didn't actually have a choice to perform or not. He realized they couldn't refuse- that would be too suspicious. He knew he couldn't go to the party himself; he'd hit a few snags and needed to focus as much time as possible to loosening the bathysphere's security and masking it from sonar as well as he could. That would already be strange enough. The bots also not showing up could cause Ryan or his security team to pay Mark a visit- a risk he couldn't afford to take.

He walked down the hallway, knocking on each robot's door as he passed and led them all into the living room. He grimaced slightly when he watched Rabbit's pronounced limp as she made her way to the couch, her leg still partially immobile. She smoothed her dress around her legs and looked up at Mark, noting his distraught expression.

“I'm d-d-doin' alright, Mark. Don't w-worry about m-m-me.” she assured him with a nod.

“What's going on, Mark?” The Spine asked, confused.

Mark took a deep breath. “Well, you have a show coming up.” he started.

“Cohen's putting us on for another show so soon?” The Jon asked.

“It's not Cohen.” Mark said, then paused for effect. “It's Andrew Ryan.”

Rabbit's jaw dropped with an audible click, The Spine blinked a few times in surprise, and The Jon stared at Mark with wide eyes. Mark took in their stunned expressions with a slight grin.

“Andrew Ryan wants us to perform? Why? And where and when?” The Jon asked, bouncing slightly on the couch, excitement making his photoreceptors bright.

“Yes he does, because he's apparently heard about you and is interested, the Kashmir restaurant, and on New Years eve.” Mark listed off.

“New years? That's three days away.” The Spine lowered his voice. “Will we still be here three days from now?”

Mark nodded. “Unfortunately, it seems so. I still need to work on a strong enough sonar scrambler so the bathysphere won't be detected as easily, but there's some security already on place that stops that from working. But chances are, if I work hard enough, I can probably have something figured out within the first week of January.”

The three automatons nodded.

“So th-this can kinda be li-li-like our... goin' away performance. Our last h-h-hurrah before we say g-goodbye to Rapture for g-g-good.” Rabbit said with a wide smile.

The Spine gave her a worried look. “Are you sure you can perform? With your leg and everything...” he trialed off as she shrugged.

“I'm c-certainly gonna try.” she said. “My l-l-leg isn't stopping me from singin', I'll be-be-be fine.”

“If you're sure.”

“Yeah, Spine.” she smiled as she stood up, faltering a bit on her bad leg. “Now, I'm g-gonna assume th-th-this is a fancy-dress type party. So I th-think we should go get new clothes.” she proposed. The Jon nodded enthusiastically in agreement, his curly hair bouncing wildly. Even The Spine seemed interested.

“And we-we-we'll stay where it's s-safe, of course.” she added when she saw Mark's hesitation.

He thought for a moment before sighing.“Just... Stay together. And stay in the safer parts of the city.” he said. He knew that it was dangerous, but the bots seemed so excited to go out for a while for something as mundane as clothes shopping. Rabbit clapped her hands together excitedly.

“Be careful.” he said as the bots went off to get ready to leave. He knew if it came down to it, the automatons could beat anyone in a fight, even if Rabbit was somewhat incapacitated by her leg. If that weren't the case, he would never let them out of his sight.

And he couldn't deny that he was glad to have some quiet time with no distractions to work on the bathysphere. The bots gave Mark one last farewell before leaving, chatting excitedly as they headed to Fort Frolic and its abundant stores and tight security.

 

Fort Frolic was unexpectedly busy, though quiet. People kept their heads down, moving from one store to the next in a rush. The Spine and The Jon kept pace with Rabbit as she limped into the small clothing store.

The cashier didn't look up from her magazine as the three automatons walked in. “Hello, welcome to Sophia Salon. We're having a fifty percent off sale...” she faltered a bit as she looked up and took in the three. “And, um... yeah, fifty percent off, and, uh, if you need anything, don't hesitate to ask!”

“Thank you, ma'am.” The Spine said, tipping his hat as Rabbit browsed the dresses. She realized how absurd this trip was. Rapture was sinking fast, both literally and metaphorically. A dress should have been the last thing on her mind. But it was nice to ignore how badly the city was doing, how badly _she_ was doing, and to focus on an unimportant task. She could almost pretend things were normal.

The Spine watched Rabbit as she looked through the dresses. She seemed happier than usual, the light from her photo-receptors softer as as she picked up a red dress and held it against herself. Although he couldn't bring himself to relax, he was happy to see Rabbit free from the stress she'd been carrying around for years.

“Uh, sir? That one... he's, uh...” the saleslady said to The Spine as she pointed at The Jon, who was wearing several hats at once. The Spine shrugged.

“He's strange, but harmless. He won't damage the hats, and I’ll make sure he puts everything back where it belongs.” He grinned at the unconvinced saleslady.

Rabbit watched the exchange with a smile as The Jon put on another hat on top of his own signature top hat. Several minutes passed as she looked at more dresses before gasping, holding up a black, scoop-necked dress with cap sleeves and a fitted bodice, and a skirt that flared out and ended at knee-length. She smiled at the saleslady, holding it up to herself and swaying slightly, letting the skirt twirl a bit.

“C-c-could ya help me f-fit this one?” she asked excitedly.

The Spine smiled as the two women went into the back room, Rabbit excitedly chatting with the vaguely overwhelmed saleslady.

“She seems really happy. I think this was a good idea.” The Jon said, inspecting another hat.

“I agree.” The Spine said with a nod.

 

The bots made it home without incident. Mark heard them walk in and breathed a sigh of relief, calling them from his workshop. The automatons walked in, Rabbit excitedly telling him about the trip before she was fully in the door. Mark noticed that the bots were in better spirits than they had been for a while. He grinned and nodded as he listened to the bots talk about their new clothes. Their excited chatter made good background noise as he worked on the bathysphere's security coding. As the bots drifted away one by one to go power down for the night, Mark continued to work.

 

Mark barely slept the three days before the New Years performance, taking half-hour naps in the chair in his workshop whenever his hands shook too much to continue typing, or his eyes hurt too much to re-wire things. He was almost surprised when Rabbit walked in wearing her new dress, her hair curled prettily around her copper face.

“M-M-M-Mark, we've on-only got two h-hours before the show! We're l-l-l-leavin' soon! You're comin', right?” she asked.

“I was invited, but I'm so close to finishing now. If I keep going, I should have this done by the time you get back.” He grinned.

Rabbit's smile dropped a bit. “And... y-you're sure there's no wa-wa-way you can come along? On the bathysphere, I m-m-mean.” she whispered.

Mark sighed, moving around his worktable to take Rabbit's hands. Her eyes were sad as she looked at his hands, warm in her cold copper ones.

“You know I can't. But if I can get you and the others out, at least... none of this will have been in vain, you know? You're like- you _are_ family to me.” he smiled.

Rabbit nodded slowly. “I th-think I understand. But I d-d-don't like leaving you here... I th-th-think Th'Jon was right the other day, we could tell someone on the s-surface... Maybe n-n-n-not anyone official, but...” she trailed off.

Mark shook his head. “That would be a bad idea. You know that.”

“I know.” she whispered.

“Hey now, you're going to get oil on your pretty dress.” Mark said, as tears welled up in Rabbit's eyes. “You're brave. You're the big sister of the group, Rabbs. You just need to be strong for them. I know you can. No more tears.”

“I-I-I'm brave.” she said, nodding and dabbing the oil from her eyes.

“You are. Now, aren't you and the others taking the Express to the Kashmir? You may want to get a move on, the Express can be slow, ironically.”

“Y-yeah.” she agreed. “We'll b-b-be home around twelve th-thirty.”

Rabbit managed a weak smile, quickly hugging Mark before turning and calling for her brothers to hurry.

 

Entering the Kashmir Restaurant was like entering a completely different city. The guests were all at-ease, laughing and chatting without a care in the world. The elaborate animal masks everyone wore added a bit of otherworldly mystery to the party, feathers and ears rising to the glass ceiling. Streamers hung from the balcony that looked over window-side dining tables full of people enjoying themselves. The bots took it all in with wide eyes.

“Rapture hasn't been like this in years.” The Spine muttered under his breath

Rabbit nodded in agreement, while The Jon gave the silver robot a hopeful look.

“Maybe this is a sign things are getting better here!”

“One party isn't going to turn the whole city around, Jon.” The Spine replied.

“Maybe not, but-”

“Excuse me sirs, madam.” a voice spoke up from behind them, quiet but forceful. “I'm to show you to the dressing room, you'll wait in there.” a waiter said as he led the bots into a back room. “You'll begin your performance at eleven and end at eleven fifty-five, before the countdown. After that, you're free to mingle with the guests. Did your... inventor come along?”

“He's ill.” The Spine lied smoothly. “He sends his regards and sincerest apologies to Andrew Ryan.”

“Well, I'm afraid if you have any technical issues, there isn't anyone on-hand able to repair you.”

“We c-c-can take care of oursel-l-lves, thank you.” Rabbit said politely.

“If you need anything else, don't hesitate to find me.” the waiter said with a nod of his head before leaving swiftly.

“Ni-ni-nice room.” Rabbit commented after a few minutes as she lounged on the plush couch. The Spine paced the room, deep in thought. The Jon stared out the window, the reflections of passing fish and bright city lights on his eyes. Rabbit looked at them and sighed softly. She knew they must be felling as claustrophobic as she was in the city now, with the promise of freedom so close. They could be preparing to leave, but they were waiting to perform instead. Struggling a bit, she stood up and joined The Jon next to the window.

“I haven't seen any mermaids in a while. D'ya think they all left?” The Jon asked.

Rabbit thought for a moment. “Maybe. I'll b-bet that they're j-j-j-just migrating or somethin' like that. It's c-cold here now, so they're p-p-probably in Australia, soaking up a-all the w-w-w-warm water.”

The Jon nodded, content with her answer.

The robots were comfortably silent as their performance drew closer. As eleven approached, the waiter led them out onto a raised platform, surrounded by hanging streamers. The Spine gave Rabbit a hand, helping her up. The guests looked up at them with wide smiles beneath their masks, clapping as the robot band took to the stage. Rabbit grinned as her performance protocols took over. It felt just like the old days, when they sold full theaters at Fort Frolic, and she couldn't deny that she was excited. She could tell the others were too.

“G-g-g-good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and happy New Year! W-we are Steam Powered Giraffe!” she started.

“The singing musical automatons!” they said in unison.

“And we're here to en-entertain you on this fine New Years eve-eve-evening!” Rabbit continued. “It's a p-pleasure to be here in the lovely Kashmir, with some of the m-m-m-most esteemed citizens of Rapture!”

The introductions continued, the crowd laughing at the automaton's antics. They went into their first song enthusiastically, Rabbit swaying softly as the lyrics to “On Top Of The Universe” fell from her lips with ease. She stepped back as The Spine took lead, singing his own song as Rabbit took over the piano.

The show went on flawlessly. The band took their final bows at eleven fifty-five, and hopped off-stage, shaking hands and grinning at the people who walked up to them. Rabbit noticed with a sly grin that The Spine found himself quickly surrounded by many lovely women the moment he stepped off stage. Her grin faltered a bit when she found herself surrounded as well. The Jon was far too hyper to be surrounded, he moved between people quickly, grinning and tipping his hat at everyone he made eye contact with.

The bots were finally freed from the crowd as the countdown to 1959 began, people grabbing their loved ones as they counted down from ten.

“Ten! Nine!”

Rabbit stood next to her brothers, grinning as the radio blared happy music to go along with the countdown.

“Eight! Seven!”

The Jon bounced excitedly on his feet, the happiness of the night boosting his spirits through the glass city and into the clouds.

“Six! Five!”

The Spine smiled down at both of his siblings, their expressions hopeful and excited as they counted down with the rest.

“Four!”

Rabbit grabbed her brother's hands, squeezing them happily.

“ _Three!_ ”

The Jon's smile faltered a bit as he heard faraway screaming.

“ _Two!_ ”

The screaming grew closer, alarmingly fast, and he realized nobody else could hear it.

“ _One!_ Happy new year!” the party-goers yelled, cheers and party-poppers creating a cacophony of celebration. The Spine cheered the loudest, his deep voice booming over the rest. Rabbit hugged the other bots happily, her grin wide, until she saw The Jon's expression.

“Something bad is-” he started, just as the doors blew inward and bullets began flying.

 


	12. Return

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It all ends.

“Happy new year.” Mark muttered to himself as he continued typing, nearly finished with the coding that would ensure the bathysphere would be almost impossible to detect, while not alerting Ryan that the security had been tampered with. A few minutes of furious typing later and he was finished. He let out an exhausted but content sigh as he ran his fingers through his hair. He glanced at his watch, squinting as he struggled to focus on the tiny numbers. With a groan, he sat in the nearby chair and was asleep within seconds.

 

“Death to Ryan!” one of the masked men shouted, hurling another grenade into the Kashmir Restaurant. Shrill screams echoed in the room as several men, grotesquely disfigured by ADAM usage, fired shots into the room. Guests ran around in a blind panic.

“Long live Atlas!” another cried, as he used Incinerate on a surprised group closest to the door.

The Spine was the first bot to react, pulling The Jon and Rabbit behind a knocked-over table. The Jon had his hands clasped firmly over his ears, and Rabbit looked stunned.

“Wh-wh-wh-what j-j-j-just happen-en-ened?” she whispered, fear making her stutter worse.

“We need to get out!” The Jon cried, as a bomb went off a few feet away, the table barely shielding them from the shrapnel blast.

The Spine quickly looked around, noting all of the exits and how crowded each one was.

“We need to head for that one.” he said, pointing to the farthest but least blocked exit. “Maybe this is an isolated attack, and the Express is still open. We can make it home soon.”

“Sp-Spine, I c-c-c-can't r-run!” Rabbit sobbed.

“I'll help you, we need to hurry.” The Jon assured her.

The Spine nodded. “We'll make a break for it when I say go.” He looked around once more, letting his Tesla coil gun warm up.

“Go!” He shouted, throwing the table at the nearest Splicer. The Jon half-carried Rabbit to the exit, with The Spine following behind them. He flinched as bullets shot past, occasionally hitting one of the bots in the back. Fortunately, the bots' chassis held up to the assault, only getting slightly dented.

The Spine aimed at any Splicer that got in their way, causing them to dodge out of the way of the running automatons.

“We're almost there, keep going!” The Jon encouraged Rabbit as she tried to go faster. She knew she was holding up the others, but her leg wasn't cooperating. She simply nodded and tried to push herself harder.

They pushed through the incoming splicers and escaped the restaurant, still running as the screams and gunfire faded behind them.

Eerily, the area they found themselves in several minutes later, shuddering as steam poured off of them, was nearly silent.

“W-w-where are-are-are we?” Rabbit groaned, her limbs clanging as she shook from exertion and fear. The Spine looked around, trying to match any familiar locations to the map he'd memorized years before.

“I think we're in the Farmer's Market.” he said uncertainly. “We aren't too far from home, and things seem to be somewhat quiet around here.” he paused for a moment. “If we go that way,” he said as he pointed once he'd gotten his bearings, “then we can check to see if the Express is still running. If not, we can still walk home.”

The other bots nodded. They followed The Spine quietly, the streets empty of people, the only signs of life were the closed-up produce stalls.

“At least mostly everyone in the city was at home for the night.” The Jon commented. Rabbit nodded.

“M-m-maybe th-that was the on-on-only attack.” she said hopefully. “M-maybe the r-r-rest of the c-city's fine.”

“I hope you're right.” The Spine sighed.

A few minutes later, they found themselves at the completely empty Atlantic Express stop.

“N-nobody-y-y's in the b-booth.” Rabbit said, worried.

“I guess we'll have to walk then.” The Jon said. “Think you'll be okay, Rabbs?”

“Y-y-y-yeah, I'll b-be okay. We-we-we aren't too far from home, are we Sp-Spine?” she asked.

“About a two hour walk, assuming we hurry and don't get stopped.”

“That's not so bad! Let's go!” The Jon said encouragingly.

 

Mark woke up with a start. He stretched, flinching as his back popped from being in a slouched position for so long. He looked at the completed security chip on his worktable with a grin. Though he knew he wasn't likely to survive in the city for very long and that thought terrified him, he was happy the automatons would get out.

His smile faded as he remembered that Rabbit and The Jon planned to tell someone about the city. He knew just telling them not to wouldn't work, they cared too much about him and couldn't see the consequences of the whole world knowing of Rapture's existence. Although The Spine cared as well, he was able to understand that, in the grand scheme of things, a few thousand people in Rapture were less important than the whole world. It wasn't an easy comparison to make, but it was one he had to think about. He shook his head. He knew simply telling them not to wouldn't work. He knew The Spine couldn't stop them from telling someone, not forever.

With a sigh, Mark began writing lines of code, working out what he needed to do.

 

The Jon heard the screaming before the bots saw anyone. Before he could give any warning, two men, both of them in tattered clothes and bloody bandages, stepped out from behind the corner of a building.

“Lookit wha' we got 'ere!” one man slurred, holding a pistol in one wavering hand.

“Who're you with?” the other man barked, aiming his Tommy gun at the three bots. “You some kinda war-bots or something? Here to stop us, huh?”

The Jon whimpered a bit as The Spine's face hardened. Rabbit pushed the smaller automaton behind her and set her jaw, stepping next to The Spine, disguising her limp as well as she could.

“Ooooh, lookit the scary lady-bot! Whatcha goin' t' do, love?” the man with the pistol laughed.

“We don't want any trouble. We're just on our way home.” The Spine said calmly, but his eyes still had their sharp edge.

“Well, I know someone who could use some automatons on his side, see? There's a war happening, metal man. You can come with us, or you can be scrapped. Starting with the scared one back there.” the man with the machine gun gestured to The Jon, who shrunk behind his siblings.

“We're going to go home.” The Spine said, voice hard and nonnegotiable. “You need to get out of our way.”

The man with the pistol glared. “I ain't scared of ya! I got 'lectrobolt and I can have ya dropped before ya could turn yer head!” his hand steadied, pistol pointed directly at The Spine.

Rabbit glared. “P-p-put the g-g-gun down.” she ordered.

“What're ya gonna do, lass?” he asked, taking a step toward The Spine. “I could put a bullet in his clockwork brain before ya could scream.”

“Wait!” The Jon shouted, stepping between the two taller robots and raising his hands.

“Th'Jon, no!” Rabbit whispered as he stepped closer. The two men turned their guns on the small brass robot as he stepped forward.

“Don't shoot! I'm unarmed! All three of us are, but maybe we shouldn't be!” The Jon said.

Rabbit looked at The Spine, confused. “W-we aren't un-un-unarmed.” she whispered.

The Spine's eyes widened. “They don't know that!” he realized.

“Oh!” Rabbit said. She looked back at the men, both of whom were focused on The Jon as he spoke to them.

“We just wanna go home. There was an attack...” he explained loudly.

“On three, we get out our weapons. Your Gatling gun and my Tesla coil.” The Spine muttered. Rabbit nodded imperceptibly as The Jon continued yelling at the two men, both of them slightly confused as the small robot went off on a tangent.

“One.” The Spine whispered as the man with the pistol lowered his gun slightly.

“Two.” The man with the Tommy gun looked at the other man with a glare.

“Hey now, you need t-”

“Three!” The Spine shouted, as The Jon turned with a smile and ran back behind the others before the men could react. His Tesla gun was warmed up already, but Rabbit's Gatling gun took a second longer to unfold. The man with the pistol fired Electobolt at The Spine, stunning him for a moment as the other main prepared his Tommy gun.

With a cry, Rabbit fired, her Gatling gun dropping the two men in seconds.

The Spine recovered a moment later as Rabbit redacted her gun, face hard. The Jon stared at her with wide eyes.

“Are you both okay?” he asked quietly.

“I'm okay.” The Spine said, voice somewhat shaky as the electricity left his system.

Rabbit nodded, pulling the smaller bot into a hug. “D-d-don't approach sc-sc-scary people like th-that again, ya hear m-me?” she muttered.

“I won't.” The Jon said. “I was hoping, maybe once they saw your weapons, they'd leave. I didn't think they're fire Plasmids or anything...”

“It's okay, The Jon. We're all fine. We need to keep moving though.” The Spine said. The Jon nodded as Rabbit let him go, and the three bits continued on their way.

 

Mark glanced at his watch while he wrote. A second later, he looked again, brows furrowed.

The bots were forty-five minutes late. He highly doubted that they would linger too long at the New Year's party, knowing that they could be preparing to leave when they get back. He tapped his fingers nervously, staring at the clock. A few minutes passed and he he stood up, walking through the empty, quiet rooms in the place they'd called home for over ten years. He knew they were anxious to leave. They should have rushed home on the Express as soon as they could.

_Maybe the Express is backed up_ , he thought to himself as he paced the living room, running his hands over his face as he checked his watch every few minutes.

Finally, as his watch hit two in the morning, the front doors slid open. Mark ran out into the foyer, relief flooding him as The Spine, Rabbit, and The Jon came in.

“Mark, the Kashmir was attacked.” The Spine said immediately.

Mark's eyes widened. “I... Oh my god. Are you okay? Who attacked?” he asked.

“You may want to sit for this.” The Spine sighed. “We've been through a lot.” he said, as he made his way into the living room, followed by the other two. Rabbit's limp was worse than it ever had been.

Mark listened as The Spine explained what happened, from the initial attack to the bots finally making it home.

“I think this is it. This is war.” Mark said, tone defeated. “We can't wait. You need to get out.”

“Wh-wh-who's g-gonna protect you, Mark?” Rabbit asked.

“I'll barricade the door. Maybe build some improvised turrets. I'm capable of protecting myself.” he assured. “But this might just be the perfect night for you all to go, while security is distracted by what's going on within the city. One masked bathysphere won't be detected.”

“Are you certain, Mark?” The Spine asked.

“Absolutely.” he replied. “I think you should gather anything you'd want to keep. It's time.”

 

The bathysphere dock was surprisingly empty and dark, the only sound was the splash of waves echoing through the large room and the automaton's hisses of steam and ticking clockwork.

Mark realized that he would really miss their sounds. He didn't dwell on it, as the realization sent a jolt of pain through his chest.

The three bots each had one small bag. They were quiet as they stepped inside their bathysphere, eyes sad as they watched Mark install the modified security chip.

He nodded. “It's done.” he paused. “I... I think it would be better if you all powered off for this though.”

Rabbit stood and hugged Mark tightly, not caring that her tears were staining his shirt. She didn't know what to say. None of them did. They knew he would never see him again, that he would die in Rapture. A minute later she let him go, sitting back down on the bench. She leaned her head on The Jon and powered off. The Jon gave Mark a weak smile before he powered off as well.

The Spine only stared at Mark.

“Are you going to erase our memory files of Rapture?” he asked bluntly. Mark opened his mouth, then closed it. Hesitantly, he nodded. The Spine sighed.

“That's... probably for the best.” he agreed.

“I'm going to replace them with different memories. These will overwrite your Rapture memories and tell you what to do once you're all on land.” he sighed. “I'm so sorry I have to do this. I truly am.”

“I know. I understand. Thank you, Mark.” The Spine closed his eyes. His clockwork whirred to a stop.

Mark set his jaw as he inserted the memory chips deep within the bot's hardware, not thinking of what was being lost as he did so. He took a shaky breath as he started the bathysphere and set the autopilot for the east coast of the United States. It would take them a few days to get there, but they would be on land within a week, and sent back to California soon after.

He stepped out of the bathysphere as it began whirring, its heavy automatic door closing behind him. Through the window, he watched the three automatons, seemingly asleep, as the sub began lowering. He watched it sink lower and lower, eventually invisible beneath the water.

He walked home alone, the only sound around him the groaning of the falling city and the distant sounds of war.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone who listened to me whine and complain as I wrote this fic, everyone who left or sent me nice comments on here or Tumblr, and to everyone who read this obscure-as-hell crossover fic! This was my longest fanfiction to date, and will probably be my longest that I'll ever write. It was worth it, I'm really glad I wrote this and I hope you enjoyed reading it~!


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